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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


PHILOBIBLON 


XTbis  BOition  is  UmiteD  to  500  Copies. 


25  Copies  on  Japan  Paper,      -         -         .        Numbered     i  to     25 
475        "        "  Deckle-edged  Paper,      -        -  "26  "   500 

©f  wbicb  tbis  is  Cops 


PHILOBIBLON 

A    Treatise 

on 

THE    LOVE   OF  BOOKS 


BY 


RICHARD  DE  BURY 

Bishop  of  Durham 
Treasurer  and  Chancellor  of  Edward  III. 

The  English  translation  thereof 

made  by  JOHN  BELLINGHAM  INGLIS,  with 

Introduction  by  CHARLES  ORR 

Librarian  of  Case  Library 

Cleveland 


NEW  YORK 

MEYER   BROTHERS   &    COMPANY 

1899 


Copyright,  1899 
By  Meyer  Bros.  &  Co. 


Louis  Weiss  d*  Co. 
Printers  .... 
1 16  Fulton  Street 
.     .     .     New  York 


-y^' 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

Preface .  vii 

Introduction        ........  xi 

Biographical         .......  xi 

As  a  Book  Collector     ......  xxii 

Editions  and  Reprints  of  the  Philobiblon  since 

1473        ........  xxvii 

Prologue    .........  I 

I.     On  the  Commendation  of  Wisdom,  and  of  Books  in 

which  Wisdom  dwelleth         .....  9 

II.     Showeth  that  Books  are  to  be  preferred  to  Riches 

and  Corporal  Pleasures           .         .                   .  '7 

III.  Books   ought   always   to   be   bought,   except   in  two 

cases     .........       23 

IV.  How  much  Good  arises  from  Books ;    and  that  the 

corrupt  Clergy  are  for  the  most  part  ungrateful  to 
Books    .........       27 

V.     Good  Professors  of  Religion  write  Books ;   bad  ones 

are  occupied  with  other  things       .         .         .         -41 
VI.     In  Praise  of  the  Ancient,  and  Reprehension  of  the 

Modern,  Religious  Mendicants      ....       47 

VII.     Deploring  the  Destruction    of  Books   by  Wars   and 

Fire 57 

VIII.     Of   the   numerous  Opportunities   of   the   Author   of 

collecting  Books  from  all  quarters  ...       65 


1540569 


VI 


PHILOBIBLON. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

IX.     The    Ancient    Students    surpassed    the    modern    in 

Fervency  of  Learning    ......       79 

X.     Science  grew  to  perfection  by  degrees.     The  Author 

provided  a  Greek  and  a  Hebrew  Grammar    .         .       87 
XI.     Laws   are,   properly  speaking,   neither  Sciences   nor 

Books    .........       93 

XII.     Of  the  Utility  and  Necessity  of  Grammar  ...       97 

XIII.  A  Vindication  of  Poetry,  and  its  Utility      ...       99 

XIV.  Of  those  who  ought  most  particularly  to  love  Books   .     105 
XV.     Of  the  manifold  Effects  of  the    Sciences  which  are 

contained  in  Books        .         .         .         .         .         .109 

XVI.     Of  writing  new  Books  and  repairing  old  ones      .         -117 
XVII.     Of  handling  Books  in  a  cleanly  manner,  and  keeping 

them  in  order         .         .         .         .         .         .         .123 

XVIII.     The  Author  against  Detractors  .         .         .         .         .129 

XIX.     A  provident  arrangement   by  which  Books  may  be 

lent  to  Strangers  .         .         .         .         .         .         -133 

XX.     The  Author  desires   to  be  prayed  for,    and  notably 

teaches  Students  to  pray        .....     140 


1^^ 


^■'^SJ 


PREFACE. 


OT  often  has  a  little  book  with  a 
great  reputation  bee?i  so  neglected 
by  publishers  as  has  the  Philobiblon 
of  Richard  de  Bury.  Though 
generally  cited  as  the  first  book 
written  in  praise  of  booksy  as  it  is  admitted  to  be 
the  most  earnest  plea  in  defense  of  book-collecting, 
it  is  singularly  unknown  even  to  book-lovers  and 
has  at  times  been  out  of  print  and  even  scarce. 

First  printed  in  Latin  at  Cologne  in  1473  ^^^ 
reprinted  from,  time  to  time  during  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  it  was  not  translated  into  English 
until  1832.     At  that  time  John  Bellingham.  Inglis 


viii  PHILOBIBLON. 

published  a  translation  afionymously  through 
Thomas  Rodd,  Bookseller,  London,  in  a  small  edi- 
tion of  about  two  hundred  copies.  The  present 
issue  is  a  reprint  of  this  first  translatio7i,  chosen 
partly  as  a  tribute  to  the  translator  who  first  dis- 
covered this  little  classic  to  English  readers,  and 
partly  because  it  was  the  only  tratislation  available, 
for  reasons  that  will  be  obvious. 

Two  other  translations  have  since  been  made, 
{one  by  Ernest  C.  Thomas  and  the  other  by  A  ndrew 
Fleming  JVest),  with  painstaki^ig  fidelity  to  texts 
obtained  by  a  comparison  of  all  known  manuscripts. 

It  may  be  claimed  for  the  Inglis  translation, 
however,  that  with  all  its  faults  it  is  m.ore  spirited 
if  not  so  accurate  as  the  others.  It  was  reprinted 
in  an  edition  of  230  copies  at  Albany  in  1861,  and 
again  by  M or  ley,  as  part  of  a  ''  Miscellany  "  in  his 
'^Universal  Library^'  in  1888.  Omitting  this  cheap 
reprint,  which  appeals  in  no  way  to  the  book-lover, 
and  the  privately  pri^tted  Grolier  Club  edition, 
barely  twelve  hundred  copies  have  found  their  way 
to  the  hands  of  English  readers.  This  is  offered 
as  a  sufficient  excuse  for  the  present  edition,  which 
disclaims  for  itself  any  attempt  to  go  over  anew  in 


PHILOBIBLON.  ix 

the  introductory  matter,  the  ground  already  so  well 
covered  by  competent  hands. 

It  was  thought,  however,  that  a  few  facts  as 
to  the  author  s  life,  and  notes  as  to  previous  edi- 
tions, gleaned  from  the  best  sources,  would  not  be 
out  of  place.  Acknowledgment  is  made  to  Thomas 
and  West,  to  whose  careful  editing  the  reader  is 
referred  for  more  minute  details. 

CHARLES  ORR. 


INTRODUCTION. 


BIOGRAPHICAL. 


ICHARD  DE  BURY  was  born 
JL  \^yjf^  near  Bury  St.  Edmund's  in  Suffolk, 
//>  rrvVL  January  24th,  1287.  He  was  the 
son  of  Richard  Aungervile,  who 
died  when  the  younger  Richard  was 
yet  a  boy,  and  left  him  to  the  care  of  a  maternal 
uncle,  John  of  Willoughby. 

The  family  was  of  Norman  descent,  his  father 
having  come  over  with  the  Conqueror  and  settled 
in  Leicestershire.  His  uncle  sent  him  to  a  gram- 
mar school  and  then  to  Oxford,  where  he  entered 
about  1305.     Of  his  student  life  little  is  known, 


xii  PHILOBIBLON. 

though  he  is  said  to  have  distinguished  himself  in 
Philosophy  and  Theology.     It  has  been  stated  that 
he  became,  on  leaving  the  University,  a  monk  at  the 
convent  of  Durham,  but  authority  for  this  is  some- 
what lacking.     However,  his  standing  at  the  Uni- 
versity seems  to  have  been  so  good  as  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  Court,  for  he  was  selected  as 
tutor  to  the  Prince  of  Windsor,  the  future  Edward 
the  Third.     To  this  circumstance  he  owed  much, 
and  it  was  the  stepping  stone  to  future  greatness. 
In  1322  he  was  made  Chamberlain  of  Chester  by 
Edward  the  Second,  and  shortly  afterwards  became 
the  King's  principal  treasurer  in  Gascony,  then  an 
English  province.     This  office  put  into  Richard's 
hands  considerable  sums  of  money,  and  when  in 
1325  Queen  Isabella  and  the  young  prince  fled  to 
Paris  and  engaged  in  intrigues  against  the  King, 
he  was  able  to  convert  part  of  the  money  to  their 
use.     The  King  instituted  an  inquiry  and  sent  a 
lieutenant  and  twenty-four  lancers    in    pursuit  of 
Richard,  who  secreted  himself  for  seven   days  in 
the  bell-tower  of  the  Brothers  Minor  at  Paris. 

Edward  the  Third  ascended  the  throne  on  the 
14th  of  January,   1327,  and  he  did  not  forget  to 


PHILOBIBLON.  xiii 

reward  his  faithful  tutor  and  friend,  who  in  turn 
was  able  to  render  great  service  to  the  King,  and 
indeed  add  much  to  the  lustre  of  his  reign  ;  and  it 
has  been  said  that  to  Richard  "  may  be  traced  the 
love  for  literature  and  the  arts  displayed  by  his 
pupil  when  on  the  throne."*  Richard  was  appointed 
in  quick  succession  Cofferer  to  the  King,  Treasurer 
of  the  Wardrobe,  and  Clerk  of  the  Privy  Seal ;  and 
he  was  in  such  favor  that  the  King  wrote  repeatedly 
to  the  Pope  recommending  him  for  ecclesiastical 
preferment. 

The  Papal  Court  was  then  at  Avignon,  and 
in  1330  Richard  was  sent  as  ambassador  to  Pope 
John  XXII.,  traveling  in  great  splendor;  when  he 
visited  the  Pope  he  was  accompanied  by  twenty 
clerks  and  thirty-six  esquires,  all  wearing  his  livery, 
and  the  Pope  entertained  him  with  honor  and  dis- 
tinction. It  was  at  Avignon  and  not  in  Italy,  as 
has  been  stated  by  some  writers,  that  he  first  met 
Petrarch,  from  whom  Richard  no  doubt  absorbed 
much  knowledge  of  books  and  secured  some  treas- 
ures to  enrich  his  own  stores ;  for  the  generosity  of 
Petrarch  was  so  excessive  that  he  could  scarcely 
•  Lord  Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Lord  Chancellors.    Vol.  i,  p.  219. 


xiv  PHILOBIBLON. 

withhold  what  he  knew  was  so  dearly  coveted. 
The  extent  of  their  friendship,  however,  has  per- 
haps been  exaggerated,  and  Petrarch  left  a  record 
which  casts  a  slight  shadow  of  doubt  as  to  the 
scholarship  of  Richard,  who  was  probably  not  so 
learned  that  he  could  afford  to  confess  ignorance. 
During  their  stay  at  Avignon  there  had  been  some 
discussion  about  the  Thule  of  the  Ancients,  and 
Petrarch  writes,  "  I  had  no  idle  discourse  on  this 
matter  with  Richard,  formerly  the  King  of  Eng- 
land's Chancellor,  a  man  of  ardent  character,  not 
ignorant  of  literature,  and  who,  as  he  was  born  and 
bred  in  Britain  and  was  from  his  youth  up  curious 
beyond  belief  on  hidden  things,  seemed  most  apt 
for  the  disentangling  of  just  such  little  questions. 
But  he,  either  because  he  so  believed,  or  because 
he  was  ashamed  to  confess  ignorance,  or,  perhaps, 
which  I  do  not  suspect,  because  he  grudged  me 
the  knowledge  of  this  mystery,  answered  that  he 
certainly  would  satisfy  my  doubts,  but  not  until  he 
had  returned  home  to  his  books,  of  which  nobody 
had  a  greater  plenty.  For  when  I  chanced  to  get 
his  friendship  he  was  a  traveler  transacting  his 
lord's  business   at   the   Apostolic  See — namely  at 


PHILOBIBLON.  xv 

that  time  when  the  first  seeds  of  a  long  war  between 
his  lord  and  the  King  of  France  were  sprouting, 
afterwards  to  yield  a  bloody  harvest.  Nor  are  the 
sickles  laid  aside  yet,  or  the  garners  closed.  But 
when  this  promiser  of  mine  had  departed,  either 
finding  nothing,  or  distracted  by  weighty  discharge 
of  his  duty  in  respect  of  the  Papal  injunctions, 
though  often  questioned  by  letters,  he  has  satisfied 
my  expectations  not  otherwise  than  by  an  obstinate 
silence.  And  so  British  friendship  has  given  me 
none  the  more  knowledge  of  Thule."  * 

However,  the  King  had  commended  Richard 
to  the  Pope  in  the  highest  terms,  writing  that  "  he 
was  a  man  whom  the  King  knew  to  be  forecasting 
in  counsel,  worthy  for  his  purity  of  life  and  con- 
versation, stored  with  knowledge  of  literature  and 
circumspect  in  all  affairs  of  business."  One  of  the 
results  of  the  embassy  was  a  promise  by  the  Pope, 
who  had  already  made  him  his  principal  chaplain, 
of  the  next  vacant  bishopric  in  England.  His 
ecclesiastical  preferments  were  at  that  time  numer- 
ous and  valuable,  and  he  was  in  receipt  of  an  annual 

"  Petrarch,  "Epist.  de  Rebus  Familiaribus,"lib.  Hi.,  ep.  i,  Opera 
ed  Bcisil. 


xvi  PHILOBIBLON. 

income  of  five  thousand  marks.  A  vacancy  soon 
occurred  at  Durham,  but  the  chapter,  perhaps 
ignorant  of  the  King's  wish,  chose  for  its  bishop 
Robert  de  Graystanes,  which  choice  received 
general  approbation,  for  he  was  in  every  way 
worthy  of  the  elevation.  The  day  for  his  con- 
firmation was  set  by  the  Archbishop  of  York,  but 
the  King  on  hearing  it  refused  his  consent  to  the 
election  on  the  ground  that  he  was  unwilling  to 
offend  the  Pope,  to  whom  he  had  previously 
written  praying  for  the  appointment  of  Richard ; 
and  he  now  urged  upon  the  prior  and  Convent  of 
Durham  that  they  should  vacate  the  election  of 
Graystanes  in  favor  of  his  choice.  Though  Robert 
had  already  been  consecrated  at  York  and  installed 
at  Durham,  he  was  at  last  compelled  to  withdraw 
from  the  unequal  contest  and  returned  to  his 
cloister.  He  has  left  upon  record  a  dignified  state- 
ment of  his  case,  in  which  there  is  no  personal 
censure  of  de  Bury ;  and  indeed  there  seems  to 
have  been  little  ground  for  censure,  for  Richard 
was  still  in  France  and  unacquainted  with  the  turn 
of  events ;  and  upon  hearing  of  the  death  of  Louis 
de  Beaumont,  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  being  urged 


PHILOBIBLON.  xvii 

to  write  to  the  Cardinals  and  others  of  his  friends 
at  the  Papal  court,  had  replied  that  "  he  would  send 
no  letters  for  that  bishopric  or  any  other,"  He 
lingered  at  his  beloved  Paris,  "  the  Paradise  of  the 
World,"  for  some  time,  returning  to  England  late 

in  1333- 

On  December  19th  of  that  year  he  was  con- 
secrated by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the 
Abbey  of  the  Black  Friars  at  Chertsey,  near 
London.  In  February  1334  he  was  made  Lord 
Treasurer,  and  on  the  5th  of  June  was  enthroned 
as  Bishop  of  Durham  with  great  pomp  in  the 
presence  of  the  King  and  Queen  and  nearly  all  the 
dignitaries  of  both  Church  and  State. 

Besides  the  bishopric,  Richard  held  at  this 
time  two  of  the  most  important  offices  in  the  gift 
of  the  King.  He  was  made  Lord  Treasurer 
February  3rd,  1334,  and  in  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember was  created  Lord  Chancellor.  At  about 
the  same  time  he  was  appointed  with  the  Bishops 
of  Norwich  and  Coventry  to  visit  Oxford  and 
inquire  into  the  discontent  existing  among  the 
students,  which  had  led  to  the  secession  of  a  large 
number  to  Stamford.     He  had  held  a  similar  com- 


xviii  PHILOBIBLON. 

mission  in   1332  with  reference  to  the  University 
of  Cambridge. 

He  retained  the  great  seal  but  a  few  months, 
surrendering  it  on  June  6th,  1335.  His  services 
were  again  required  by  the  King  in  settlement  of 
some  of  the  foreign  complications  which  arose 
during  this  period  of  his  reign,  and  during  the  next 
few  years  he  spent  much  of  this  time  abroad  on 
various  diplomatic  missions. 

In  July  of  1336  he  was  sent  with  others  to 
arrange  a  treaty  with  King  Phillip  of  France,  one 
part  of  his  mission  being  the  discussion  of  a 
proposed  joint  crusade  of  the  Holy  Land.  But 
this  embassy  returned  to  England  in  September 
without  success.  The  confidence  of  the  King 
was  further  attested  in  1337,  when  Richard  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  commissions  appointed  to 
lay  before  the  magnates  of  York  and  Newcastle 
the  King's  intentions  regarding  the  invasion  of 
Scotland. 

His  last  visit  to  the  Continent  was  made  in 
1338.  The  struggle  with  the  French  King  was 
drawing  near,  but  in  deference  to  the  Pope,  Edward 
consented  to  make  one  more  effort  to  avert  it  and 


PHILOBIBLON.  xix 

appointed  Richard  with  John  Stratford,  (Archbishop 
of  Canterbury),  and  others  to  treat  for  peace. 
They  sailed  for  the  low  countries,  visiting  Ant- 
werp, Mechlin,  Brussels  and  other  cities.  Edward 
himself  sailed  on  the  i6th  of  July,  arriving  at  Ant- 
werp on  the  22nd  and  annulled  the  powers  of  his 
commissioners. 

The  King  then  formed  an  alliance  with  Em- 
peror Lewis  at  Coblentz.  Richard  accompanied 
the  royal  party  on  the  journey  from  Antwerp  to 
Coblentz,  which  was  marked  with  great  splendor 
and  a  lavish  expenditure  of  money.  A  throne  was 
erected  for  each  monarch  in  the  market  place  of  the 
city  and  they  took  their  seats,  surrounded  by  1 7,000 
gentlemen,  knights  and  nobles  of  the  sovereigns  who 
owed  fealty  to  the  Emperor.  The  Pope  appealed 
again  and  again  by  letters  to  Edward,  but  war  was 
declared  in  September,  1339.  In  October  of  that 
year  Richard  returned  to  England  and  his  bishop- 
ric. He  disliked  and  opposed  the  war,  but  con- 
tinued in  the  confidence  of  the  King,  and  on  the 
15th  day  of  April  1341  was  again  appointed  to 
negotiate  for  peace.  There  is  no  record  of  service 
on  this  commission,  and  it  appears  that  he  did  not 


XX  PHILOBIBLON. 

go  to  France,  for  in  July  he  was  charged  with 
others  to  arrange  the  defense  of  Northern  England 
against  Scotland.  His  abhorrence  of  war  led  him 
to  withdraw  more  and  more  to  the  care  of  his 
diocese  and  the  companionship  of  his  books,  and 
the  King  now  had  frequent  occasions  to  stir  him 
to  action,  as  the  struggle  with  France  had  then 
begun  in  earnest.  When  in  August  Edward  laid 
special  charge  on  Richard  to  set  all  the  men  in  his 
bishopric  in  array  against  Bruce,  he  equipped  an 
escort  at  his  own  expense,  but  did  little  more. 
The  attack  on  Bruce  was  fruitless,  and  in  April, 
1342,  Richard  was  sent  to  arrange  for  peace.  He 
soon  withdrew  altogether  from  the  strife  and  tur- 
moil of  public  life  and  retired  to  the  seclusion  of 
his  library  at  Auckland  Palace.  These  were  no 
doubt  the  happiest  years  of  his  life  and  out  of  the 
fulness  of  his  experience  as  a  traveller  and  diplo- 
mat and  great  collector  of  books  he  now  began  to 
write  his  Philobiblon,  which  he  completed  on  his 
fifty-eighth  birthday,  January  24th,  1345.*  On  the 
14th  of  April  of  the  same  year,  while  thus  actively 
engaged  in  the  duties  of  a  literary  man  in  arranging 
*  See  the  concluding  note  to  the  Philobiblon, 


PHILOBIBLON.  xxi 

the  great  collection  of  manuscripts  and  books  which 
he  had  brought  together,  and  in  many  good  works, 
he  died  at  Auckland. 

He  was  buried  at  Durham  Cathedral  before  the 
altar  of  St.  Mary  Magdalen.  His  many  benefac- 
tions to  the  Cathedral  and  other  great  expenditures 
during  his  lifetime  had  led  many  to  think  that  he 
would  leave  a  large  sum  to  the  church.  But  after 
his  death  it  was  found  one  of  his  chests  which 
was  supposed  to  contain  treasure,  was  full  of  linen, 
shirts,  and  hair  breeches,  and  that  his  great  liber- 
ality had  left  him  with  little.  On  his  marble  tomb 
"his  owne  ymage  was  most  curiously  and  artificially 
ingraven  in  brass,  with  pictures  of  the  twelve 
apostles  devided  and  bordered  on  either  side  of 
him  and  other  fine  imagery  work  about  it,  much 
adorning  the  marble  stone."  * 

The  tomb  and  the  image  have  long  since 
perished,  having  been  destroyed  in  the  Civil  war. 
Impressions  of  his  silver  seals  are  in  existence 
however  to  this  day,  one  of  them  containing  a 
portrait  fairly  agreeing  with  the  description  of  the 
"ymage,"  being  the  only  portrait  extant. 
*  Rites  of  Durham,  Surtees'  Society,  1842,  p.  2. 


xxii  PHILOBIBLON. 


AS    A    BOOK    COLLECTOR. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Richard's  many  trips  abroad 
to  centers  of  book-making,  his  great  command  of 
money  with  the  readiness  of  men  to  barter  books 
for  his  influence,  gave  him  opportunities  for  col- 
lecting which  for  those  times  were  exceptional. 
The  booksellers  throughout  Europe  found  him  a 
generous  and  profitable  customer,  and  he  was  in 
correspondence  with  the  librarians  "  not  only  of 
his  native  soil,  but  of  those  dispersed  over  the 
kingdoms  of  France,  Germany  and  Italy." 

The  story  of  how  he  collected  his  books  is 
frankly  and  very  quaintly  set  forth  in  the  eighth 
chapter  of  the  Philobiblon.  "  For  the  flying  fame 
of  our  love  for  books  had  already  spread  in  all 
directions,  and  it  was  reported  not  only  that  we 
had  a  longing  desire  for  books  and  especially  for 
old  ones,  but  that  anybody  could  more  easily 
obtain  our  favor  by  quartos  than  by  m.oney." 

His  visits  to  some  of  the  smaller  towns  where 
he  rummaged  convents   in   search  of  books  were 


PHILOBIBLON.  xxiii 

often  fully  repaid,  and  he  admits  his  obligations 
to  the  mendicants  whom  he  found  *'  not  selfish 
hoarders  but  meet  professors  of  enlightened  knowl- 
edge." 

It  may  be  truly  said  that  his  passion  for  col- 
lecting was  never  selfish  or  sordid ;  for  he  delighted 
to  have  his  friends  use  his  books,  and  it  was  his 
fixed  purpose  to  eventually  bestow  them  upon  his 
old  University  that  they  might  be  available  to  all 
its  students.  Much  of  his  enthusiasm  was  no  doubt 
kindled  by  this  desire,  and  it  may  be  offered  in 
palliation  of  his  accepting  books  as  bribes,  since,  as 
he  says,  "Justice  suffered  no  detriment." 

At  about  the  time  he  wrote  the  Philobiblon  he 
had  by  far  the  best  private  library  in  England,  and 
it  is  written  that  it  contained  more  books  than  the 
libraries  of  all  the  other  English  bishops  together. 
He  had  collections  of  books  in  each  of  his  resi- 
dences, and  they  so  filled  his  rooms  that  his  friends 
often  had  some  difficulty  in  finding  a  place  to  stand 
or  sit.  His  love  for  books  was  not  only  ardent  and 
sincere,  but  stands  out  the  more  clearly  because  he 
lived  in  an  age  and  in  a  country  that  loved  them  so 
little.     He  knew  that  his  book-collecting  propen- 


xxiv  PHILOBIBLON. 

sities  were  "  obnoxious  to  the  criticisms  of  many, 
traduced  by  whose  wonderings  we  are  sometimes 
remarked  upon  for  superfluous  earnestness  in  that 
matter  alone,  sometimes  for  a  display  of  vanity, 
and  sometimes  for  immoderate  pleasure  in  litera- 
ture ;  but,  in  truth,  these  vituperations  no  more 
discompose  us  than  the  barking  of  a  lap  dog,  being 
contented  with  the  testimony  of  Him  to  whom 
alone  it  belongs  to  search  the  reins  of  the  heart."* 
Surely  no  modern  collector  ever  reached  a  higher 
pitch  of  enthusiasm,  and  so  it  is  not  strange  that 
for  the  four  centuries  since  the  appearance  of  his 
Philobiblon  in  print  he  has  remained  the  patron 
saint  of  all  English  book-lovers. 

That  he  did  not  actually  found  a  library  was 
due  no  doubt  to  the  fact  that  he  died  in  debt, 
because  of  his  generosity  while  living.  The  tra- 
ditional accounts  of  the  fate  of  his  books  is  that 
some  at  least  were  sent  to  the  hall  of  the  Benedic- 
tine Monks  at  Durham  College,  Oxford,  while  he 
was  yet  alive,  perhaps  to  secure  them  from  his 
creditors.  They  were  preserved  in  this  Hall  in 
chests  until  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.  (1399-14 13), 
*  Philobiblon,  Chapter  XVIII. 


PHILOBIBLON.  xxv 

when  they  were  taken  out  and  fastened  to  reading 
desks  or  pews,  and  so  remained  until  Henry  VIII. 
dissolved  Durham.  They  were  then  dispersed, 
some  going  into  Duke  Humphrey's  library,  others 
to  Balliol  College  and  the  remainder  to  the  King's 
physician,  Dr.  George  Owen  of  Godstow,  near 
Oxford.  Nearly  all  of  them  were  destroyed  during 
the  stormy  days  of  the  Reformation,  and  of  this 
splendid  mediaeval  library  only  two  books  now 
remain,  so  far  as  known.  One  is  a  copy  of  Anselm 
and  other  Theological  treatises  now  in  the  Bodleian. 
The  other  is  a  twelfth  century  copy  of  John  of 
Salisbury's  works,  now  in  the  British  Museum.* 

Richard's  busy  life  as  a  man  of  affairs  and  con- 
science keeper  of  Edward  III.  naturally  left  him 
little  time  for  study,  and  as  has  been  hinted  by 
Petrarch  he  was  a  patron  of  scholarship  and  letters 
rather  than  a  scholar.  But  if  he  was  not  an 
original  thinker  he  did  what  he  could  to  preserve 
the  thoughts  of  others  in  books,  and  to  inspire  a 
love  for  study  in  those  about  him.  He  corresponds 
perhaps  to  the  early  Humanists  of  Italy,  who  col- 

*  Andrew   Fleming  W^est's   Introduction   to   the   Grolier    Club 
edition  of  the  Philobiblon. 


xxvi  PHILOBIBLON. 

lected  manuscripts  and  saw  the  possibilities  of 
learning  without  being  themselves  learned.  He 
loved  to  surround  himself  with  the  brilliant  men  of 
his  day,  and  the  Philobiblon  itself  may  be  supposed 
to  represent  the  fruit  of  his  intellectual  converse 
with  these  learned  men  as  well  as  of  his  own  reading 
and  experience. 

As  to  his  character  it  stands  out  at  many  points 
in  the  pages  of  the  book  itself  and  may  be  judged 
in  the  chronicles  of  his  life  as  set  down  by  others. 
Chambre  describes  him  as  an  excellent  bishop,  an 
amiable  and  warm-hearted  man.  He  was  chari- 
table to  the  poor  of  the  diocese  and  hospitable  to 
wayfarers.  He  was  quick  of  temper,  but  easily 
appeased,  and  beloved  by  all  his  people.  In  the 
words  of  one  of  his  biographers,  "he  was  a  man  of 
his  age,  but  better  than  his  age.  Without  rising 
to  the  level  of  greatness,  he  is  far  above  the 
common-place." 


PHILOBIBLON.  xxvii 

EDITIONS   AND    REPRINTS    OF    THE 
PHILOBIBLON    SINCE    i473- 

The  Philobiblon  has  appeared  in  print  four- 
teen times  previous  to  the  present  reprint.  Both 
Thomas  and  West  have  described  all  the  various 
issues  previous  to  their  own  editions  from  actual 
copies. 

The  first  three  editions,  Cologne  1473,  Spires 
1483  and  Paris  1500,  are  placed  by  West  in  a  class 
notable  as  beautiful  examples  of  early  printing  and 
containing  the  Latin  text  without  annotations. 

The  same  authority  classes  the  Oxford  edition 
of  1599  as  unique,  it  having  been  based  on  a  study 
of  six  or  more  manuscripts  and  having  been  the  first 
attempt  to  edit  the  text  from  manuscript  sources. 

The  reprints  of  1610,  1614,  1674  and  1703  all 
appeared  as  one  of  several  treatises  bound  together 
and  form  a  third  class,  while  a  fourth  class  is  made 
up  of  those  which  contain  a  translation  of  the  Latin 
text  as  follows : 

The  London  translation  of  1832. 

The  Paris  edition  of  1856. 


xxviii  PHILOBIBLON. 

The  Albany  compilation  of  1861. 

The  London  reprint  of  1888  (Professor  Mor- 
ley's). 

To  West's  enumeration  and  classification  may 
now  be  added  a  fifth  class,  which  include  both 
critical  texts  and  original  translations. 

The  text  and  translation  by  Ernest  C. 
Thomas. 

The  text  and  translation  by  Andrew  Fleming 
West. 

These  two  editions  appeared  at  about  the  same 
time,  the  former  in  London  and  the  latter  in  New 
York,  and  were  each  based  upon  independent  study 
of  practically  the  same  sources,  including  every 
known  manuscript.  Both  have  scholarly  and  ex- 
haustive introductions  and  notes,  bringing  together 
much  material  previously  unknown,  and  leaving 
little  to  be  desired. 

The  following  more  detailed  description  of  the 
various  editions  and  reprints  is  condensed  prin- 
cipally from  the  pages  of  Thomas  and  West. 
Notes  as  to  their  editions  are  added  to  bring  the 
list  up  to  date  : 


PHILOBIBLON.  xxix 

1473,  Coloane. 

The  editio  princeps  of  the  Philobiblon  was  printed  in 
a  small  quarto  volume  of  48  leaves,  without  title  page  or 
preface,  pagination,  signatures  or  catchwords.  Its  printer 
is  said  to  have  been  G.  Gops  de  Euskyrchen.  It  contains 
no  indication  of  authorship  outside  the  text,  but  begins: 

Incipit  prologus  in  librum  de  amore  librorum  qui 
dicitur  philobiblon 

It  ends : 

Explicit  philobiblon  sci.  liber 

de  amore  liborum  Colonie  impres 

sus  anno  domini  Mcccc.lxxiij.  etc. 

This  edition  was  printed  in  black  letter  type,  twenty, 
six  lines  to  the  page.  The  initial  letter  of  each  chapter 
is  rubricated  by  hand.  The  pages  measure  14x21  centi- 
metres and  have  broad  even  margins.  Two  copies  are  in 
the  British  Museum,  one  in  the  Bodleian  and  one  at  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale,  Paris.  Copies  belong  also  to 
Earl  Spencer,  Mr.  W.  Amherst,  Mr.  I.  Amherst,  Mr.  Sam. 
Timmins  and  Mr.  Bernard  Quaritch,  in  England.  The 
late  Mr.  Hamilton  Cole,  of  New  York,  also  owned  a  copy. 


1483,  Spires. 

Ten  years  afterwards  the  Philobiblon  was  printed  by 
the  brothers  John  &  Conrad  Hiist  in  a  small  quarto  of 
39  leaves,  with  31  lines  to  the  page,  without  pagination, 
catchwords  or  signatures,  edited  anonymously  by  one 
who  describes  himself  as  "  minimus  sacerdotum." 


XXX  PHTLOBIBLON. 

A  better  text  than  that  of  Cologne,  though  both  are 
defective.  Rarer  than  the  editio  princeps*  The  British 
Museum  has  a  copy,  and  there  is  a  copy  at  the  Bodleian 
Library.  Of  copies  in  private  hands  in  England  one  is 
owned  by  Mr.  Bernard  Quaritch  and  one  by  Mr.  Sam. 
Timmins.  Two  copies  are  in  New  York,  one  owned  by 
Dr.  W.  R.  Gillette,  and  the  other  in  the  library  of  the 
late  Hamilton  Cole. 


1500.  Paris. 

A  small  quarto  of  24  unnumbered  leaves  (sig.  a  [i]- 
iiii,  b  i-iiii,  c  i-iv)  with  the  following  title-page: 

Philobiblion  Tractatus  pulcher  |  rimus  de  amore  librorum. 

[Then  follows  the  printer's  mark  and  name  : 
JEHAN  PETIT.] 

Venundatur  in  leone  argenteo  |  vici  sancti  lacobi. 

On  the  recto  of  the  last  leaf : 

Explicitum  est  philobiblion  scilicet  liber  de  amore  librorum  quem 
impressit  apud  parrhisios  hoc  anno  secundum  eosdem  millesimo 
quingentesimo  ad  calendas  martias  Caspar  philippus  pro  loanne 
parvo  Bibliopola  parrhisiensi. 

On  the  verso  of  the  first  leaf  is  an  account  of  De  Bury 
taken  from  Trithemius . . .  followed  by  a  letter  dated 
1st  March  from  the  scholar-printer  lodocusBadius  Ascen- 
sius  to  Laurentius  Burellus,  confessor  of  the  King  and 

*  Mr.  Bernard  Quaritch  bought  a  copy  at  the  Fuller-Russell  sale 
in  1886  for  ;^i2  15s. 


PHILOBIBLON.  xxxi 

Bishop  of  Sisteron,  who  appears  to  have  sent  the  book  to 
him  to  print.  He  expressly  says  that  Jean  Petit  had 
joined  him  in  undertaking  "hoc  munus  nobiscum  sus- 
cepit."  This  disposes  of  the  statement  of  the  biblio- 
graphers, which  has  been  repeated  down  to  Cocheris,  that 
there  were  two  editions  of  1500,  one  by  Petit  and  the 
other  by  Badius  Ascencius.  Cocheris  himself  does  not 
say  that  he  has  seen  either  edition  and  he  gives  the  title 
inaccurately.  The  Paris  edition  is  simply  a  reimpression 
of  that  of  Cologne. 

The  pages  measure  13x18  centimetres.  In  the  middle 
of  the  title  is  a  wood  engraving,  in  which  Jean  Petit's 
monogram  appears  on  a  shield  upheld  by  two  lions,  and 
his  name  is  engraved  below  in  full.  Typographically  the 
book  is  a  model.  The  delicate  light  Roman  type  makes 
a  graceful  page.  It  is  the  rarest  of  all,  and  only  two 
copies  are  known,  one  in  the  British  Museum,  and  the 
other  in  the  Bodleian. 

1598  a  9,  ®Ifor^ 

A  quarto  of  62  pages,  with  4  unnumbered  pages  of 
preliminary  matter  and  8  unnumbered  pages  of  appendix. 
The  only  known  extant  copy  with  date  1598  is  in  the 
Bodleian  Library.     The  title  page  is  as  follows : 

Philobiblon  |  Richardi  |  Dvnelmensis  |  sive  |  De  amore  librorum, 
et  Institvtione  bibliothecae  |  tractatus  pulcherrimus.  |  Ex  collatione 
cum  varijs  manuscriptis  edi-  |  tio  jam  secunda;  |  cui  |  accessit 
appendix  de  manuscriptis  Oxoniensibus.  |  Omnia  haec.  |  Opere  & 
Studio  T.  I.  Novi  coll.  in  alma  Academia  |  Oxoniensi  Socij.  |  [B.  P. 
N.]  I  Non  quaero  quod  mihi  vtile  est  sed  quod  multis.  |  Oxoniae,  | 
Excudebat  losephus  Barnesius  1598. 


xxxit  PHILOBIBLON. 

The  other  extant  copies  bear  date  1 599  and  appear  to 
be  a  mere  reissue  with  a  fresh  title  page.  To  this  reissue 
there  is  prefixed  a  Latin  Epistola  Dedicatoria  signed 
Thomas  James. 

1010*1614,  jfranftfurt.    1674,  Xeip3io. 

The  Philobiblon  was  not  again  printed  until  the 
present  century  as  a  separate  work,  but  only  in  col- 
lectaneous  works.  In  1610  a  small  octavo  volume  was 
printed  with  the  following  title  : 

Philologicarum  epistolarum  centuria  Vna  diversorum  a  renatis 
Uteris  Doctissimorum  virorum. . .  insuper  Richardi  de  BVRI  Episcopi 
Dunelmensis  Philobiblion  &  Bessarionis  Patriarchae  Constantinopo- 
litani  &  Cardinalis  Nicaeni  Epistola  ad  Senatum  Venetum.  Omnia 
nunc  primum  edita  ex  Bibliotheca  Melchioris  Haiminsfeldii  Goldasti. . . 
Francofurti  Impensis  Egenolphi  Emmelli,  anno  1610. 

The  Philobiblon  occupies  pp.  400-500  of  the  book, 
p.  400  being  a  fresh  title  page  bearing  the  words  "  ex 
Bibliotheca  et  recensione  Melchioris  Haiminsfeldii  Gol- 
dasti." The  text  with  a  few  trifling  variations  is  that  of 
Paris,  1500.  The  edition  of  1614  seems  to  be  merely  a 
reissue  with  a  fresh  title  page,  and  the  reprint  of  1674  at 
Leipzig  presents  no  variations  to  call  for  remark. 

1703,  1belmsta&t 

The  edition  printed  by  J.  A.  Schmidt  in  the  "  Nova 
accessio  "  is  merely  a  reprint  of  Goldast's  edition  with  a 
few  slight  alterations.  The  Philobiblion  (as  it  is  called) 
occupies  pp.  I — 66. 


PHILOBIBLON.  xxxiii 

1832,  Xon^.  trans. 

Philobiblon,  a  treatise  on  the  love  of  books  by  Richard  de  Bury, 
Bishop  of  Durham,  written  in  1344  and  translated  from  the  first 
edition,  1473,  with  some  collations  [by  John  Bellingham  Inglis.] 
London.     Printed  for  Thomas  Rodd.      1832.     8vo,  pp.  viii.  151. 

Published  anonymously.     Thomas  says  it  is  rare. 

The  first  English  translation.  A  small  edition  only 
was  printed  at  the  expense  of  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Jolliffe.  An 
interesting  memoir  of  Mr.  Inglis  was  written  by  J.  P. 
Berjeau  and  published  in  his  periodical  The  Bookzvortn, 
vol.  V.  178-182.     (Thomas.) 


1856.  IParis. 

Philobiblion,  excellent  traite  sur  I'amour  des  livres,  par  Richard 
de  Bury,  Eveque  de  Durham,  Grand-Chancelier  d'Angleterre,  traduit 
pour  la  premiere  fois  en  frangais,  precede  d'une  introduction  et  suivi 
du  texte  latin  revu  sur  les  anciennes  editions  et  les  manuscrits  de  la 
Bibliotheque  imperiale:  par  Hippolyte  Cocheris.  .  .  Paris:  Aubry, 
1856.  8vo,  47  plus  287  pp.  [500  copies  printed,  of  which  22  were 
on  special  papers  and  2  on  vellum.  ] 

Thomas  pronounces  the  text  to  be  that  of  1703,  with 
the  readings  of  the  three  Paris  MSS.  given  in  foot  notes. 
Peabody  Library,  at  Baltimore,  has  a  copy. 

The  bibliographical  and  critical  notes  were  reprinted 
separately  in  1857  with  the  following  title  page  : 

Notice  bibliographique  et  litteraire  sur  le  Philobiblon  de  Richard 
de  Bury. .  .  precedee  d'une  biographic  de  cet  auteur  par  Hippolyte 
Cocheris.     Paris:  Aubry.     1857.     i2mo.     47  pp. 


xxxiv  PHILOBIBLON. 

1861,  aiban^. 

Philobiblon,  a  treatise  on  the  love  of  books,  by  Richard  de  Bury, 
Bishop  of  Durham  and  Lord  Chancellor  of  England.  First  American 
ed.,  with  the  literal  English  translation  of  John  B.  Inglis.  Collated 
and  corrected,  with  notes,  by  Samuel  Hand.  Albany :  Joel  Munsell. 
1861.     Pp.  X.  252.     Edition  of  230  copies;  30  upon  large  paper. 

This  edition  reprinted  the  text  of  Cocheris  with  a 
translation  of  his  Biographical,  Bibliographical  and  Crit. 
ical  Introduction — and  Notes.  Thomas  calls  this  com- 
pilation "  a  flagrant  piece  of  book-making,  not  very 
creditable  either  to  its  editor  or  America." 


1888,  XonD. 

Inglis'  translation  was  reprinted  as  part  of  the  last 
volume  of  Morley's  Universal  Library.  The  title  given 
to  the  entire  volume  is  "  A  Miscellany."  The  Philobiblon 
occupies  pp.  9-81.     i2mo.     London,   1888.     Routledge. 


\SS^,  Xon&.,  1889,  "K.  35. 

Philobiblon  of  Richard  de  Bury,  Bishop  of  Durham,  Treasurer 
and  Chancellor  of  Edward  III.  Edited  and  translated  by  Ernest 
C.  Thomas,  Barrister  -  at  -  law,  late  Scholar  of  Trinity  College, 
Oxford,  and  Librarian  of  the  Oxford  Union.  London  :  Kegan  Paul, 
Trench  &  Co.  1888.  i2mo,  79  plus  259  pp.  New  York,  1889, 
Lockwood  &  Coombes. 

The  text  is  based  upon  a  critical  study  of  28  MSS. 
Contains  Biographical  introduction  (pref.  p.  1 1-47), 
Bibliographical  notes  (pref.  p.  49-79)  and  an  Index,  with 


PHILOBIBLON.  xxxv 

copious  explanatory  and  illustrative  notes  and  various 
readings  found  in  the  more  important  MSS. 

This  is  the  best  edition  generally  accessible  to 
students,  the  Grolier  Club  Edition,  mentioned  below, 
having  been  privately  printed,  and  being  now  difficult  to 
obtain. 

1889,  B.  13. 

The  Philobiblon  of  Richard  de  Bury.  Three  parts 
edited  and  translated  with  Introduction  and  Notes  by 
Andrew  Fleming  West.  3  vols,  illustrated  medium 
4°  parchment.  300  copies.  Printed  for  the  Grolier  Club. 
The  title  pages  of  the  three  volumes  are  as  follows : 

Ricardi  de  Bury  Philobiblon  ex  Optimis  Codicibus  Recensuit 
Versione  Anglica  necnon  et  Prolegomenis  Adnotationibusque  auxit 
Andreas  Fleming  West  in  Collegio  Princetoniae  professor.  Novi 
Eboraci.  Typis  et  Impensis  Societas  Grolierianae  MDCCCLXXXIX. 
Pars  prima  textus. 

The  Philobiblon  of  Richard  de  Bury  Edited  from  the  best  manu- 
scripts and  translated  into  English  with  an  Introduction  and  Notes 
by  Andrew  Fleming  West,  Professor  in  Princeton  College.  Part 
second,  English  version .  .  .  New  York  Printed  for  the  Grolier 
Club.     1889. 

The  Philobiblon  of  Richard  de  Bury  Edited  from  the  best  manu- 
scripts and  translated  into  English  with  an  introduction  by  Andrew 
Fleming  West,  professor  in  Princeton  College,  Part  third  Intro- 
ductory Matter  and  Notes  New  York.  Printed  for  the  Grolier 
Club     1889. 

The  typography  of  this  edition  is,  like  many  of  the 
books  of  the  Grolier  Club,  perfect.  It  is  thus  described 
by  Mr.  Theodore  L.  De  Vinne  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  West : 


xxxvi  PHILOBIBLON. 

"  The  black-letter  types  for  the  first  volume  of  Philo- 
biblon  were  cast  in  the  foundry  of  Sir  Charles  Reed's 
Sons,  London,  from  matrices  of  great  age.  The  punches 
for  these  matrices  were  probably  cut  in  Rouen,  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  Sixteenth  Century.  They  have  the 
peculiarities  of  the  French  black  letters  of  that  time. 
M.  Talbot  Baines  Reed,  the  author  of  the  valuable  His- 
tory of  Old  English  Type  Foundries,  kindly  got  them 
out  of  the  vault  where  they  had  remained  in  disuse  for  a 
long  time,  and  fitted  them  up  for  this  edition  of  the  book. 
I  selected  this  cut  of  letter  in  preference  to  the  Caxton 
black,  because  I  adjudged  it  more  truly  Norman  French 
or  Norman  English  than  the  Caxton  black  (which  has 
decided  Flemish  peculiarities),  believing  that  the  letter 
used  by  de  Bury  was  Norman  French  and  not  at  all 
Saxon,  Flemish,  or  Celtic. 

"  The  illuminated  capitals  are  of  the  later  period. 
I  could  not  find  good  models  for  initial  letters  of  the 
Thirteenth  Century  free  from  the  Irish  Celtic  inter- 
lacings,  which  I  wanted  to  avoid.  The  backgrounds  or 
fields  of  the  initials  are  of  approved  mediaeval  and  ec- 
clesiastical forms.  These  initials  were  drawn  by  Mr. 
James  West,  of  London,  after  studies  from  originals  in 
the  British  Museum.  The  broad  black  bands  which 
divide  the  chapters,  as  well  as  the  chapter  ornaments, 
and  the  smaller  head-bands  for  the  second  volume,  are 
from  the  same  designer.  The  larger  head-bands  are  the 
designs  of  Mr.  Charles  M.  Jenckes,  now  of  Portland, 
Maine,  and  Mr.  George  Wharton  Edwards,  of  this  city. 
The  line  endings  are  from  the  French,  German  and 
American  type-foundries." 


l^Here  begimieth  the  Prologue  to  a  Treatise  upon  the  Love 
of  Books,  whicJi  is  called  Philobiblon.] 


PROLOGUE. 


0  ALL  the  faithful  in  Christ,  to 
whom  the  tenor  of  this  present 
writing  may  descend,  Richard  de 
Bury,  by  divine  commiseration 
Bishop  of  Durham,  wisheth  eter- 
nal health  in  the  Lord,  as  also  to  present  a  pious 
memorial  of  himself  before  God,  while  he  yet 
liveth,  and  likewise  after  his  decease. 

The  invincible  king,  psalmist,  and  greatest  of 
prophets,  most  devoutly  asks,  "  What  can  I  render 
to  the   Lord  for  all  that  He  hath  conferred  upon 


2  PHILOBIBLON. 

me  ?"  In  which  most  grateful  question  he  recog- 
nizeth  in  himself  the  willing  retributer,  the  multi- 
farious debtor,  and  the  most  soundly  discerning 
counsellor ;  agreeing  with  Aristotle,  the  prince  of 
philosophers,  who  proves  the  whole  question  about 
things  practicable,  to  be  deliberate  choice  (Ethics, 
B.  3  and  6).  Truly,  if  so  admirable  a  prophet, 
having  a  foreknowledge  of  divine  secrets,  was 
willing  thus  earnestly  to  premeditate  upon  the 
manner  in  which  he  might  acceptably  return  gifts 
by  thanks,  what  more  worthily  shall  we,  who  are 
rude  thankers  and  most  eager  receivers,  laden  with 
infinite  divine  benefactions,  be  able  to  resolve 
upon  ?  Without  doubt,  in  anxious  deliberation 
and  increased  circumspection,  the  septiform  Spirit 
being  first  invoked,  so  that  an  illuminating  fire  may 
burn  in  our  meditation,  we  ought  most  attentively 
to  look  forward  to  the  unbeaten  way  in  which  the 
Dispenser  of  all  things  would  willingly  be  recipro- 
cally venerated  on  account  of  His  gifts  conferred 
upon  us.  Let  our  neighbor  be  relieved  of  his 
burthen,  and  the  guilt  daily  contracted  by  our  sins 
be  redeemed  by  the  remedy  of  alms. 

Forewarned,   therefore,   by  admonition  of  this 


PHILOBIBLON.  3 

devotion,  by  Him  who  alone  anticipates  and  per- 
fects the  goodwill  of  man  (without  whom  no  suffi- 
ciency of  thinking  in  any  way  suggests  itself ;  of 
whom  we  doubt  not  is  the  reward  for  whatever 
good  we  shall  have  done),  we  have  diligently  dis- 
cussed within  ourselves,  and  also  inquired  of  others, 
which  amongst  the  duties  of  the  various  kinds  of 
piety  might  be  in  the  first  degree  pleasing  to  the 
Most  High,  and  best  promote  the  Church  militant. 
And  behold  a  herd  of  outcast  rather  than  of  elect 
scholars  meets  the  views  of  our  contemplation,  in 
whom  God  the  artificer,  and  Nature  his  handmaid, 
have  planted  the  roots  of  the  best  morals  and  most 
celebrated  sciences.  But  the  penury  of  their  private 
affairs  so  oppresses  them,  being  opposed  by  adverse 
fortune,  that  the  fruitful  seeds  of  virtue,  so  pro- 
ductive in  the  unexhausted  field  of  youth,  unmoist- 
ened  by  their  wonted  dews,  are  compelled  to  wither. 
Whence  it  happens,  as  Boethius  says,  that  bright 
virtue  lies  hid  in  obscurity,  and  the  burning  lamp  is 
not  put  under  a  bushel,  but  is  utterly  extinguished 
for  want  of  oil.  Thus  the  flowery  field  in  spring  is 
ploughed  up  before  harvest ;  thus  wheat  gives  way 
to  tares,  the  vine  degenerates  to  woodbine,  and  the 


4  PHILOBIBLON. 

olive  grows  wild  and  unproductive.  The  slender 
beams  which  might  have  grown  into  strong  pillars 
of  the  Church  entirely  decay.  Men,  endowed  with 
the  capacity  of  a  subtle  wit,  relinquish  the  schools 
of  learning,  violently  repelled  by  the  sole  envy  of 
a  stepmother  from  the  nectareous  cup  of  philo- 
sophy, having  first  tasted  of  it,  and  by  the  very 
taste  become  more  fervently  thirsty.  Fitted  for 
the  liberal  arts,  and  equally  disposed  to  the  contem- 
plation of  Scripture,  but  destitute  of  the  needful 
aid,  they  revert,  as  it  were,  by  a  sort  of  apostasy  to 
mechanical  arts  solely  for  the  sake  of  food,  to  the 
impoverishment  of  the  Church,  and  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  whole  clerical  profession.  Thus  the 
mother  Church  conceiving  sons,  is  compelled  to 
miscarry,  if  indeed  some  monstrous  misshapen  abor- 
tion is  not  torn  from  her  womb  ;  and  instead  of  the 
few  and  the  smallest  with  which  she  by  nature  is 
contented,  she  sends  forth  egregious  bantlings,  and 
finally  promotes  them  as  the  athletse  and  champions 
of  the  faith.  Alas,  how  quickly  the  web  is  cut  up, 
while  the  hand  of  the  weaver  is  yet  at  work!  How 
soon  the  sun  is  eclipsed  in  the  clearest  sky,  and  the 
progressing    planet    becomes    retrograde !     How 


PHILOBIBLON.  5 

suddenly  the  meteor,  exhibiting  the  nature  and 
appearance  of  a  real  star,  falls  down  ;  for  it  is  formed 
from  below.  What  can  the  pious  man  more  pitifully 
behold  ?  What  can  more  keenly  penetrate  the 
bowels  of  compassion  ?  What  more  readily  dis- 
solve a  heart,  though  hard  as  an  anvil,  into  the 
warmest  tears  ? 

Arguing  further  on  the  contrary  side,  let  us 
call  to  mind  from  the  events  of  former  times,  how 
greatly  it  profited  the  whole  Christian  republic, 
not  indeed  to  enervate  students  by  the  luxuries 
of  Sardanapalus,  nor  yet  by  the  riches  of  Croesus, 
but  rather  to  support  the  poor  in  scholastic  medio- 
crity. How  many  have  we  seen,  how  many  have 
we  collected  from  writings,  who,  not  being  dis- 
tinguished by  brilliancy  of  birth,  nor  boasting  of 
hereditary  succession,  but  supported  alone  by  the 
piety  of  just  men,  have  deserved  the  Apostolical 
Chair,  and  most  honorably  presided  over  its 
faithful  subjects,  have  subjected  the  necks  of  the 
proud  and  exalted  to  the  ecclesiastical  yoke,  and 
easily  procured  the  liberty  of  the  Church  ! 

Wherefore,  taking  a  thorough  survey  of  human 
wants,  with  a  view  of  charitable  consideration  for 


6  PHILOBIBLON. 

this  obscure  class  of  men,  in  whom,  however,  such 
great  hopes  of  advantage  to  the  Church  are  felt, 
the  bent  of  our  compassion  has  peculiarly  predis- 
posed us  to  offer  our  pious  aid  ;  and  not  only  to 
provide  them  with  necessary  food,  but,  what  is 
more,  with  the  most  useful  books  for  study.  For 
this  purpose,  most  acceptable  to  the  Lord,  our  un- 
wearied attention  hath  already  been  long  upon  the 
watch.  This  ecstatic  love  hath  indeed  so  power- 
fully seized  upon  us,  that,  discharging  all  other 
earthly  pursuits  from  our  mind,  we  have  alone 
ardently  desired  the  acquisition  of  books.  That 
the  motive  of  our  object,  therefore,  may  be  mani- 
fest, as  well  to  posterity  as  to  our  contemporaries, 
and  that  we  may,  in  so  far  as  it  concerns  ourselves, 
for  ever  close  the  perverse  mouths  of  talkers,  we 
have  drawn  up  a  little  treatise,  in  the  lightest  style 
indeed  of  the  moderns  (for  it  is  ridiculous  in  rheto- 
ricians to  write  pompously  when  the  subject  is 
trifling),  which  treatise  will  purge  the  love  we  have 
had  for  books  from  excess,  will  advance  the  pur- 
pose of  our  intense  devotion,  and  will  narrate  in  the 
clearest  manner  all  the  circumstances  of  our  under- 
taking, dividing  them  into  twenty  chapters.      But 


PHILOBIBLON.  7 

because  it  principally  treats  of  the  Love  of  Books, 
it  hath  pleased  us,  after  the  fashion  of  the  ancient 
Latins,  fondly  to  name  it  by  a  Greek  word,  Philo- 
biblon. 

\Here  endeth  the  Prologue. \ 


^^ 


PHILOBIBLON. 


CHAPTER  I. 


On  the  Commendation  of  Wisdom,  and  of  Books 
in  which  Wisdom  dwelleth. 


\ 

s 

HE  desirable  treasure  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge,  which  all  men 
covet  from  the  impulse  of  nature, 
infinitely  surpasses  all  the  riches 
of  the  world  ;  in  comparison  with 
which,  precious  stones  are  vile,  silver  is  clay,  and 
purified  gold  grains  of  sand ;  in  the  splendor  of 
which,  the  sun  and  moon  grow  dim  to  the  sight ; 
in  the   admirable  sweetness  of  which,  honey  and 


10  PHILOBIBLON. 

manna  are  bitter  to  the  taste.  The  value  of  wis- 
dom decreaseth  not  with  time  ;  it  hath  an  ever- 
flourishing  virtue  that  cleanseth  its  possessor  from 
every  venom.  O  celestial  gift  of  divine  liberal- 
ity, descending  from  the  Father  of  Light  to  raise 
up  the  rational  soul  even  to  heaven  !  Thou  art  the 
celestial  alimony  of  intellect,  of  which  whosoever 
eateth  shall  yet  hunger,  and  whoso  drinketh  shall 
yet  thirst ;  a  harmony  rejoicing  the  soul  of  the  sor- 
rowful, and  never  in  any  way  discomposing  the 
hearer.  Thou  art  the  moderator  and  the  rule  of 
morals,  operating  according  to  which  none  will  err. 
By  thee  kings  reign,  and  lawgivers  decree  justly. 
Through  thee,  the  rusticity  of  nature  being  cast  off, 
wits  and  tongues  being  polished,  and  the  thorns  of 
vice  utterly  eradicated,  the  summit  of  honor  is 
reached  ;  and  they  become  fathers  of  their  country 
and  companions  of  princes,  who,  without  thee, 
might  have  forged  their  lances  into  spades  and 
plough-shares,  or  perhaps  have  fed  swine  with  the 
prodigal  son.  Where  then,  most  potent,  most 
longed-for  treasure,  art  thou  conceded  ?  and  where 
shall  the  thirsty  soul  find  thee?  Undoubtedly, 
indeed,  thou  hast  placed   thy  desirable  tabernacle 


PHILOBIBLON,  ii 

in  books,  where  the  Most  High,  the  Light  of  Hght, 
the  Book  of  Life  hath  estabHshed  thee.  There 
then  all  who  ask  receive,  all  who  seek  find  thee,  to 
those  who  knock  thou  openest  quickly.  In  books 
cherubim  expand  their  wings,  that  the  soul  of  the 
student  may  ascend  and  look  around  from  pole  to 
pole,  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun,  from  the 
north  and  from  the  sea.  In  them  the  Most  High 
incomprehensible  God  himself  is  contained  and 
worshipped.  In  them  the  nature  of  celestial,  ter- 
restrial and  infernal  beings  is  laid  open.  In  them 
the  laws  by  which  every  polity  is  governed  are  de- 
creed, the  of^ces  of  the  ceh""<"'Wl  hierarchy  are 
distinguished,  and  tyrannies  of  such  demons  are 
described  as  the  ideas  of  Plato  never  surpassed,  and 
the  chair  of  Crato  never  contained. 

In  books  we  find  the  dead  as  it  were  living ;  in 
books  we  foresee  things  to  come  ;  in  books  warlike 
affairs  are  methodized  ;  the  rights  of  peace  proceed 
from  books.  All  things  are  corrupted  and  decay 
with  time.  Saturn  never  ceases  to  devour  those 
whom  he  generates ;  insomuch  that  the  glory  of 
the  world  would  be  lost  in  oblivion  if  God  had  not 
provided  mortals  with   a   remedy  in   books.   Alex- 


12  PHILOBIBLON. 

ander  the  ruler  of  the  world ;  Julius  the  invader  of 
the  world  and  of  the  city,  the  first  who  in  unity  of 
person  assumed  the  empire  in  arms  and  arts  ;  the 
faithful  Fabricius,  the  rigid  Cato,  would  at  this  day 
have  been  without  a  memorial  if  the  aid  of  books 
had  failed  them.  Towers  are  razed  to  the  earth, 
cities  overthrown,  triumphal  arches  mouldered  to 
dust ;  nor  can  the  King  or  Pope  be  found  upon 
whom  the  privilege  of  a  lasting  name  can  be  con- 
ferred more  easily  than  by  books.  A  book  made, 
renders  succession  to  the  author  :  for  as  long  as  the 
book  exists,  the  author  remaining  dOdvaros,  immor- 
tal, cannot  perish  ;  as  Ptolemy  witnesseth  in  the 
Prologue  of  his  Almagest,  he  (he  says)  is  not  dead 
who  gave  life  to  science. 

What  learned  scribe,  therefore,  who  draws  out 
things  new  and  old  from  an  infinite  treasury  of 
books,  will  limit  their  price  by  any  other  thing 
whatever  of  another  kind  ?  Truth  overcoming  all 
things,  which  ranks  above  kings,  wine  and  women, 
to  honor  which  above  friends  obtains  the  benefit 
of  sanctity,  which  is  the  way  that  deviates  not,  and 
the  life  without  end  ;  to  which  the  holy  Boethius 
attributes  a  threefold   existence,  in  the  mind,   in 


PHILOBIBLON.  13 

the  voice,  and  in  writing,  appears  to  abide  most 
usefully  and  fructify  most  productively  of  advan- 
tage in  books.  For  the  truth  of  the  voice  perishes 
with  the  sound.  Truth  latent  in  the  mind  is  hidden 
wisdom  and  invisible  treasure  ;  but  the  truth  which 
illuminates  books  desires  to  manifest  itself  to  every 
disciplinable  sense,  to  the  sight  when  read,  to  the 
hearing  when  heard  ;  it,  moreover,  in  a  manner 
commends  itself  to  the  touch,  when  submitting  to 
be  transcribed,  collated,  corrected  and  preserved. 
Truth  confined  to  the  mind,  though  it  may  be  the 
possession  of  a  noble  soul,  while  it  wants  a  com- 
panion and  is  not  judged  of,  either  by  the  sight  or 
the  hearing,  appears  to  be  inconsistent  with  pleas- 
ure. But  the  truth  of  the  voice  is  open  to  the 
hearing  only,  and  latent  to  the  sight  (which  shows 
us  many  differences  of  things  fixed  upon  by  a  most 
subtle  motion,  beginning  and  ending  as  it  were 
simultaneously).  But  the  truth  written  in  a  book, 
being  not  fluctuating,  but  permanent,  shows  itself 
openly  to  the  sight,  passing  through  the  spiritual 
ways  of  the  eyes,  as  the  porches  and  halls  of  com- 
mon sense  and  imagination  ;  it  enters  the  chamber 
of  intellect,  reposes  itself  upon  the  couch  of  me- 


14  PHILOBIBLON. 

mory,  and  there  congenerates  the  eternal  truth  of 
the  mind. 

Lastly,  let  us  consider  how  great  a  commodity 
of  doctrine  exists  in  books,  how  easily,  how  secretly, 
how  safely  they  expose  the  nakedness  of  human 
ignorance  without  putting  it  to  shame.  These  are 
the  masters  who  instruct  us  without  rods  and  ferules, 
without  hard  words  and  anger,  without  clothes  or 
money.  If  you  approach  them,  they  are  not 
asleep  ;  if  investigating  you  interrogate  them,  they 
conceal  nothing  ;  if  you  mistake  them,  they  never 
grumble ;  if  you  are  ignorant,  they  cannot  laugh 
at  you. 

You  only,  O  Books,  are  liberal  and  indepen- 
dent. You  give  to  all  who  ask,  and  enfranchise 
all  who  serve  you  assiduously.  How  many  thou- 
sands of  things  do  you  typically  recommend  to 
learned  men,  in  writing  after  a  divinely  inspired 
manner ;  for  you  are  the  deepest  mines  of  wisdom, 
to  which  the  wise  man  sent  his  son  that  he  might 
thence  dig  up  treasure  (Prov.  ii.).  You  are  the 
wells  of  living  water,  which  the  patriarch  Abraham 
first  dug,  and  Isaac  again  cleared  out  after  the 
Philistines  had  endeavored  to  fill  them  up  (Gen. 


PHILOBIBLON.  15 

xxvi.).  Truly  you  are  the  ears  filled  with  most 
palatable  grains,  to  be  rubbed  out  by  apostolical 
hands  alone,  that  the  most  grateful  food  for 
hungry  souls  may  come  out  of  them  (Matt.  xii.). 
You  are  golden  urns  in  which  manna  is  laid  up, 
rocks  flowing  with  honey,  or  rather  indeed  honey- 
combs ;  udders  most  copiously  yielding  the  milk  of 
life ;  store-rooms  ever  full ;  the  tree  of  life,  the 
four-streamed  river  of  Paradise, vwhere  the  human 
mind  is  fed,  and  the  arid  intellect  moistened  and 
watered  ;  the  ark  of  Noah,  the  ladder  of  Jacob,  the 
troughs  by  which  the  foetus  in  those  who  look 
upon  them  is  colored,  the  stones  of  the  covenant, 
and  the  pitchers  preserving  the  lamps  of  Gideon ; 
the  bag  of  David  from  which  polished  stones  are 
taken  that  Goliath  may  be  prostrated.  You,  O 
Books,  are  the  golden  vessels  of  the  temple,  the 
arms  of  the  clerical  militia,  with  which  the  missiles 
of  the  most  wicked  are  destroyed,  fruitful  olives, 
vines  of  Engedi,  fig-trees  knowing  no  sterility ; 
burning  lamps  to  be  ever  held  in  the  hand.  And, 
if  it  please  us  to  speak  figuratively,  we  shall  be 
able  to  adapt  the  best  sayings  of  every  writing 
whatever  to  books. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Showeth  that  Books  are  to  be  preferred  to  Riches 
and  Corporal  Pleasures. 


F  anything-  whatever,  according  to 
a  degree  of  value  deserves  a  degree 
y  VY  X £^  of  love,  the  present  chapter  truly 
(^^/i>J  \^\$!)  proves  the  ineffable  value  of  books, 
though  its  conclusions  may  pro- 
bably not  appear  clear  to  the  reader ;  for  we 
do  not  make  use  of  demonstration  in  moral 
subjects,  seeing  that  it  is  the  business  of  a  moral 
man  to  seek  for  certainty  accordingly  as  he 
may  have  perceived  the  nature  of  the  subject  to 
bear  it,  as  the  arch-philosopher  witnesseth  (i. 
Ethic,  2.  Metaph.);  for  Tully  neither  requires 
Euclid,  nor  does  Euclid  put  faith  in  Tully.  But 
this  indeed  we  endeavor  either  logically  or 
rhetorically  to  inculcate,  that  riches  and  pleasures 
of    every  kind    ought    to    give    way    to    books    in 


PHILOBIBLON.  i8 

spiritual  mind,  where  the   spirit,  which   is  charity, 
ordaineth  charity. 

In  the  first  place  indeed,  because  more  wisdom 
is  contained  in  books  than  all  mortals  comprehend  ; 
and  wisdom  holds  riches  in  no  esteem,  as  alleged 
in  the  preceding  chapter.  Moreover,  Aristotle 
(Problems,  Sect.  30,  Dis.  11)  determines  this  ques- 
tion— viz.,  upon  what  account  did  the  ancients  chiefly 
appoint  prizes  for  gymnastic  and  corporal  exer- 
tions, and  never  decree  any  reward  for  wisdom  ? 
Which  question  he  thus  solves.  In  gymnastic  exer- 
cises, the  reward  is  better  and  more  eligible  than 
that  for  which  it  is  given  ;  but  it  is  evident  nothing 
is  better  than  wisdom,  wherefore  no  reward  could 
have  been  assigned  to  wisdom  ;  therefore  neither 
riches  nor  pleasures  are  more  excellent  than  wisdom. 
Again,  that  friendship  is  to  be  preferred  to  riches 
none  but  a  fool  will  deny  ;  to  this  the  wisest  of  men 
bears  witness.  But  the  arch-philosopher  honors 
truth  above  friendship,  and  the  ancient  Zorobabel 
gives  it  precedence  over  all  things  ;  therefore  plea- 
sures are  inferior  to  truth.  But  the  Sacred  Books 
most  powerfully  preserve  and  contain  the  truth  ; 
they  are  assuredly  the  written  truth  itself ;  for  upon 


PHILOBIBLON.  19 

this  occasion  we  do  not  assert  the  main  beams  of 
the  books  to  be  parts  of  books,  wherefore  riches 
are  inferior  to  books,  more  especially  as  the  most 
precious  of  all  kinds  of  riches  are  friends  (witness 
Boethius,  De  Consolatione,  B.  2),  to  which,  how- 
ever, the  truth  of  books  is  preferred  by  Aristotle. 
But,  further,  as  riches  are  primarily  and  principally 
acknowledged  to  pertain  to  the  aid  of  the  body  only, 
and  as  the  truth  of  books  is  the  perfection  of 
reason,  which  is  properly  named  the  good  of  man- 
kind, so  it  appears  that  books  to  a  man  using  them 
with  reason  are  dearer  than  riches.  Again,  that  by 
which  the  faith  is  most  conveniently  defended, 
most  widely  diffused,  and  most  clearly  preached, 
ought  to  be  most  beloved  by  a  faithful  man  ; 
and  that  is  the  truth  of  books,  inscribed  in  books  ; 
which  our  Saviour  most  evidently  figured  when, 
manfully  fighting  against  temptation,  He  covered 
himself  with  the  shield  of  truth,  not  indeed  of  writ- 
ing of  any  sort ;  but  promising,  that  what  He  was 
about  to  declare  by  the  sound  of  His  living  voice, 
was  also  written  (Matt.  iv.). 

Again,  therefore,  nobody  doubts  that  happiness 
is  to  be  preferred  to  riches,  for  happiness  is  consis- 


20  PHILOBIBLON. 

tent  with  the  operation  of  the  most  noble  and 
divine  power  we  possess — namely,  when  the  intel- 
lect is  entirely  at  leisure  for  the  contemplation  of 
the  truth  of  knowledge,  which  is  the  most  delec- 
table of  all  operations  according  to  virtue,  as  the 
prince  of  philosophers  determines  in  the  Nicoma- 
chian  Ethics,  B.  lo;  on  which  account  philosophy 
also  appears  to  possess  admirable  delights  from  its 
purity  and  stability,  as  the  same  author  states  in 
the  sequel.  But  the  contemplation  of  truth  is 
never  more  perfect  than  in  books,  as  the  active 
imagination,  kept  up  by  a  book,  does  not  permit 
the  operation  of  the  intellect  upon  visible  truth  to 
be  interrupted.  For  which  reason  books  appear  to 
be  the  most  immediate  instruments  of  speculative 
happiness ;  whence  Aristotle,  the  sun  of  physical 
truth,  where  he  unfolds  the  doctrine  of  objects  of 
choice,  teaches  that  to  philosophize  is  in  itself  more 
eligible  than  to  grow  rich,  although  from  necessary 
circumstances  in  the  case,  it  may  be  thought  more 
elicrible  for  an  indigent  man  to  grow  rich  than  to 
philosophize  (Topics  3).  Inasmuch,  then,  as  books 
are  our  most  convenient  masters,  as  the  preceding 
chapter  assumes,  it  becomes  us  not  undeservedly  to 


PHILOBIBLON.  21 

bestow  upon   them,  not  only  love,  but  magisterial 
honor. 

Finally,  as  all  men  by  nature  are  desirous  of 
knowledge,  and  as  we  are  able  by  books  to  obtain 
the  knowledge  of  truth,  to  be  chosen  before  all 
riches,  what  man,  living  according  to  nature,  can  be 
without  an  appetite  for  books  ?  But  although  we 
may  see  hogs  despise  pearls,  the  opinion  of  a  pru- 
dent man  is  in  no  way  injured  by  that ;  he  will  not 
the  less  purchase  proffered  pearls.  The  library, 
therefore,  of  wisdom  is  more  precious  than  all 
riches,  and  nothing  that  can  be  wished  for  is  worthy 
to  be  compared  with  it  (Prov.  iii.).  Whosoever, 
therefore,  acknowledges  himself  to  be  a  zealous  fol- 
lower of  truth,  of  happiness,  of  wisdom,  of  science, 
or  even  of  the  faith,  must  of  necessity  make  him- 
self a  lover  of  books. 


CHAPTER  III. 


Books  ought  always  to  be  Bought,  except  in  two 
Cases. 

E  draw  this  corollary  satisfactory 
to  ourselves  from  what  has  been 
said,  although,  as  we  believe,  but 
few  will  receive  it — namely,  that 
no  expense  ought  to  prevent  men 
from  buying  books  when  what  is  demanded  for 
them  is  at  their  command,  unless  the  knavery 
of  the  seller  is  to  be  withstood  or  a  better 
opportunity  of  purchasing  is  expected.  Because 
if  wisdom  alone,  which  is  an  infinite  treasure 
to  man,  determines  the  price  of  books,  and  if  the 
value  of  books  is  ineffable,  as  the  premisses  sup- 
pose, how  can  a  bargain  be  proved  to  be  dear  which 
purchases  an  infinite  benefit.  For  this  reason 
Solomon,  the  sun  of  mankind  (Prov.  xxiii.),  exhorts 
us  to  buy  books  freely  and  sell  sparingly.   He  says : 


24  PHILOBIBLON. 

"  Buy  truth,  and  sell  not  wisdom."  But  what  we 
now  rhetorically  and  logically  inculcate,  we  can 
support  by  histories  of  past  events.  The  arch-phi- 
losopher Aristotle,  of  whom  Averroes  thinks  that 
he  was  given  as  it  were  for  a  rule  in  nature,  bought 
a  few  of  Speusippus's  books  immediately  after  his 
death  for  72,000  sesterces.  Plato,  prior  to  him  as 
to  time,  but  his  inferior  as  to  doctrine,  bought  the 
library  of  Philolaus  the  Pythagorean  for  10,000 
denarii ;  from  which  he  is  said  to  have  extracted 
the  dialogue  of  Timseus,  as  Aulus  Gellius  relates 
(Noct.  Attic,  lib.  3,  c.  16).  But  Aulus  Gellius 
relates  these  things,  that  the  ignorant  may  con- 
sider how  greatly  the  wise  undervalue  money  in 
comparison  with  books  ;  and,  on  the  contrary,  that 
we  may  all  know  the  folly  attached  to  pride,  let  us 
here  review  the  folly  of  Tarquin  the  Proud  in  un- 
dervaluing books,  as  the  same  Aulus  Gellius  relates 
it  (Noct.  Attic,  lib.  i,  c  19).  "A  certain  old 
woman,  quite  unknown,  is  said  to  have  come  into 
the  presence  of  Tarquin  the  Proud,  the  seventh 
king  of  the  Romans,  and  offered  him  nine  books 
for  sale,  in  which,  as  she  asserted,  the  Divine  ora- 
cles were  contained  ;  but  she  demanded  such  an 


PHTLOBIBLON.  25 

immense  sum  of  money  for  them,  that  the  king  said 
she  was  mad.  Taking  offence  at  this,  she  threw 
three  of  the  books  into  the  fire,  and  demanded  the 
sum  first  asked  for  the  rest.  The  king  refus- 
ing, she  threw  three  more  of  the  books  into  the 
fire,  and  still  demanded  the  same  sum  for  the 
remaining  three.  At  length  Tarquin,  being  aston- 
ished beyond  measure,  was  glad  to  pay  the  sum 
for  three  books  for  which  he  could  have  bought 
the  whole  nine.  The  old  woman,  who  was  never 
seen  before  nor  afterwards,  immediately  disap- 
peared," These  are  the  Sibylline  books  which  the 
Romans  consult  as  Divine  oracles,  through  one  of 
the  quindecemvirs,  and  from  them  the  quindecem- 
virate  office  is  supposed  to  have  had  its  origin. 
What  else  did  this  Sibylline  prophetess  teach  the 
proud  king  by  so  subtle  a  device,  but  that  the  vases 
of  wisdom,  the  sacred  books,  surpass  all  human 
estimation  ;  and  as  Gregory  says  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  "Whatsoever  you  may  possess,  that  is  its 
value  ! " 


CHAPTER  IV. 

How  much  Good  arises  from  Books  ;  and  that  the 
corrupt  Clergy  are  for  the  most  part  ungrate- 
ful to  Books. 


PROGENY  of  vipers  destroying 
its  own  parents,  and  the  cruel  off- 
spring of  the  most  ungrateful 
cuckoo,  which,  when  it  hath  ac- 
quired strength,  slays  its  little 
nurse,  the  liberal  donor  of  its  power — such  are 
the  degenerate  clergy  with  respect  to  books. 
Turn  to  your  hearts,  ye  prevaricators,  and  faith- 
fully compute  how  much  you  have  received  from 
books,  and  you  will  find  books  to  have  been  in  a 
manner  the  creators  of  your  entire  noble  estate ; 
without  them  it  would  certainly  have  been  deficient 
of  promoters.  Hear  them  speak  for  themselves. 
Well  then, — "  When  you  were  altogether  ignorant 
and  helpless,  you  spoke  like  children,  you  knew 
like  children  ;  and  crying  like  children  you  crept 


28  PHILOBIBLON. 

towards  us,  and  begged  to  be  participators  of  our 
milk.  We  indeed,  moved  by  your  tears,  instantly 
tendered  you  the  paps  of  grammar  to  suck,  which 
you  firmly  adhered  to  with  tooth  and  tongue,  till 
your  babbling  accents  were  overcome,  and  you  be- 
gan to  utter  the  mighty  acts  of  God  in  our  own 
language.  After  that  we  clothed  you  with  the 
right  comely  garments  of  philosophy,  dialectics, 
and  rhetoric,  which  we  had  and  keep  by  us ;  as 
you  were  naked,  and  like  tablets  for  painting  upon  : 
for  all  the  inmates  of  philosophy  are  doubly  clothed, 
that  the  nakedness  as  well  as  the  rudeness  of  their 
understandings  may  be  concealed.  Lastly,  affixing 
to  you  the  four  wings  of  the  four  converging  ways, 
that  being  winged  in  a  seraphic  manner  you  might 
soar  above  the  cherubim,  we  transmitted  you  to  a 
friend,  at  whose  door,  while  you  yet  knocked 
earnestly,  the  three  loaves  of  the  intelligence  of  the 
Trinity,  upon  which  the  final  happiness  of  every 
wayfaring  man  whatever  depends,  would  be  pre- 
pared for  you.  What  if  you  should  say,  *  You  have 
no  such  gifts ; '  we  confidently  assert  that  you 
either  lost  them,  when  conferred  upon  you,  through 
carelessness,  or  rejected  them  from  the  beginning. 


PHILOBIBLON.  29 

when  offered  to  you,  through  indolence.  If  trifles 
of  this  kind  are  found  disagreeable,  we  will  add 
something  more  important.  You  are  the  elect 
race,  the  royal  priesthood,  the  holy  tribe  and 
people  of  the  acquisition  ;  you  are  held  to  be  in 
the  peculiar  lot  of  the  Lord,  the  priests  and  minis- 
ters of  God  ;  indeed,  you  may  be  called  by  antono- 
masia  the  Church  itself,  inasmuch  as  laymen  can- 
not be  called  Churchmen.  You  chant  psalms  and 
hymns  in  the  chancel,  and  serve  at  the  altar  of  God, 
participating  with  the  altar,  while  the  laity  are 
placed  behind  you.  You  concoct  the  true  body  of 
Christ,  in  which  God  himself  hath  honored  you, 
not  only  above  laymen,  but  even  somewhat  above 
His  angels ;  for  to  which  of  the  angels  hath  He  ever 
said,  *  Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of 
Melchisedech  ? '  You  dispense  the  testimony  of 
Christ  crucified,  to  the  poor.  Where  is  it  now 
sought  for  amongst  the  dispensers,  so  that  any  faith- 
ful man  can  find  it  ?  You  are  the  pastors  of  the 
flock  of  the  Lord,  as  well  by  the  example  of  your 
lives  as  by  the  words  of  your  doctrine,  which  is 
kept  by  you  to  distribute  the  milk  and  the  wool. 
Who,  O  clergy,  are  the  liberal  bestowers  of  these 


30  PHILOBIBLON. 

gifts  ?  Are  they  not  books  ?  We  beg  It  may  please 
you  to  remember  how  many  excellent  privileges  of 
exemption  and  freedom  have  been  conceded  to  the 
clergy  through  us.  Qualified  indeed  by  us  alone, 
the  vessels  of  wisdom  and  intellect,  you  ascend  the 
magisterial  chair,  and  men  call  you  Rabbi.  Through 
us  you  are  admirable  in  the  sight  of  the  laity,  as 
the  great  luminaries  of  the  world  ;  and  you  possess 
the  dignities  of  the  Church  according  to  your 
various  destinies.  Constituted  by  us  at  a  tender 
age,  while  you  yet  wanted  the  down  upon  your 
chins,  you  bore  the  tonsure  upon  your  crowns, 
bespeaking  the  formidable  state  of  the  Church,  in 
the  decree,  '  Touch  not  my  anointed,  and  do  my 
prophets  no  harm ;  and  whoever  rashly  toucheth 
them,  his  own  blow  shall  instantly  recoil  upon  him 
with  the  wound  of  an  anathema.' 

"  At  length,  falling  into  the  age  of  wickedness, 
arriving  at  the  double  way  of  the  Pythagoric 
symbol  Y,  you  choose  the  left-hand  branch,  and 
turning  aside  cast  off  the  preassumed  destination  of 
the  Lord,  and  become  companions  of  thieves  ;  and 
thus  ever  progressing  to  worse,  you  are  defiled  by 
robberies,  homicide,  and  various  shameful  crimes, 


PHILOBIBLON.  31 

your  character  and  conscience  being  equally  cor- 
rupted by  wickedness.  Being  called  to  justice,  you 
are  kept  bound  in  manacles  and  fetters,  to  be 
punished  by  a  most  ignominious  death.  Then 
your  friend  and  neighbor  is  absent,  nor  is  there 
any  one  to  pity  your  fate.  Peter  swears  he  never 
knew  the  man  :  the  mob  cry  out  to  the  judge, 
'  Crucify  him  !  crucify  him  !  for  if  you  discharge 
this  man  you  will  not  be  the  friend  of  Caesar.'  It 
is  now  too  late  to  fly ;  you  must  stand  before  the 
tribunal ;  no  place  of  appeal  offers  itself ;  nothing 
but  hanging  is  to  be  expected.  When  sorrow  and 
the  broken  song  of  lamentation  alone  shall  have 
thus  filled  the  heart  of  a  wretched  man  ;  when  his 
cheeks  are  watered  with  tears,  and  he  becomes 
surrounded  with  anguish  on  every  side,  let  him 
remember  us  ;  and  that  he  may  avoid  the  peril  of 
approaching  death,  let  him  display  the  little  token 
of  the  antiquated  tonsure  which  we  gave  him, 
begging  that  we  may  be  called  in  on  his  behalf, 
and  bear  witness  to  the  benefit  conferred. 

"  Then  moved  by  pity  we  instantly  run  to  meet 
the  prodigal  son,  and  snatch  the  fugitive  servant 
from  the  gates  of  death  ;   the  well-known  book  is 


32  PHILOBIBLON. 

tendered  to  be  read,  and  after  a  slight  reading  by 
the  criminal,  stammering  from  fear,  the  power  of 
the  judge  is  dissolved,  the  accuser  is  withdrawn, 
death  is  put  to  flight.  O  wonderful  virtue  of  an 
empiric  verse  !  O  salutary/  antidote  to  dire  calam- 
ity !  O  precious  reading  of  the  psalter,  which  de- 
serves henceforth,  from  this  itself  to  be  called  the 
Book  of  Life !  Laymen  must  undergo  secular 
punishment  :  either  being  sewn  up  in  sacks  they 
may  be  consigned  to  Neptune  ;  or  planted  in  the 
ground  may  fructify  for  Pluto  ;  or  may  offer  them- 
selves up  by  fire,  as  fattened  holocausts  to  Vulcan  ; 
or  at  all  events,  being  hanged  they  may  be  victims 
to  Juno,  while  our  pupil,  by  a  single  reading  of  the 
Book  of  Life,  is  commended  to  the  custody  of  the 
pontiff,  and  rigour  is  converted  into  favor.  And 
while  the  bench  is  transferred  from  the  layman, 
death  is  averted  from  the  clerical  nursling  of  books. 

"  Let  us  now  speak  of  those  clergy  who  are  the 
vessels  of  virtue.  Which  of  you  ascends  the  pulpit 
or  desk  to  preach  without  first  consulting  us  ? 
Which  enters  the  schools  either  to  lecture,  dispute 
or  preach,  who  is  not  enlightened  by  our  rays  ? 

"You  must  first  eat  the  volume  with  Ezekiel, 


PHILOBIBLON,  33 

that  the  stomach  of  your  memory  may  be  internally 
sweetened  ;  and  thus  after  the  manner  of  the  per- 
fumed panther  (to  the  breath  of  which  men,  beasts, 
and  cattle  draw  near  that  they  may  inhale  it),  the 
sweet  odor  of  your  aromatic  conceptions  will  be 
externally  redolent.  Thus  our  nature,  secretly  and 
most  intimately  working  within  you,  benevolent 
auditors  flock  about  you,  as  the  magnet  attracts 
iron,  by  no  means  unwillingly.  What  though  an 
infinite  multitude  of  books  be  deposited  in  Paris 
or  Athens,  do  they  not  likewise  speak  aloud  in 
Britain  and  in  Rome, — for  even  being  at  rest  they 
are  moved ;  while  confining  themselves  to  their 
proper  places,  they  are  everywhere  carried  about 
to  the  understandings  of  hearers. 

"Finally,  we  establish  priests,  pontiffs,  cardinals, 
and  the  pope,  that  all  things  in  the  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy  may  be  set  in  order  by  the  knowledge  of 
letters ;  for  every  benefit  that  arises  out  of  the 
clerical  state  has  its  origin  in  books.  But  even 
now  it  grieves  us  to  reflect  upon  what  we  have 
given  to  the  degenerate  race  of  clergy,  because 
gifts  bestowed  upon  the  ungrateful  appear  to  be 
rather  lost  than  conferred. 


34 


PHILOBIBLON. 


"  In  the  next  place,  let  us  stop  a  little  to  recite 
the  injuries,  indignities  and  reproaches  they  repay 
us  with,  of  which  we  are  not  competent  to  recount 
all  of  every  kind, — scarcely  indeed  the  first  kinds 
of  them  all. 

"In  the  first  place,  we  are  expelled  with  heart 
and  hand  from  the  domiciles  of  the  clergy,  appor- 
tioned to  us  by  hereditary  right,  in  some  interior 
chamber  of  which  we  had  our  peaceful  cells  ;  but, 
to  their  shame,  in  these  nefarious  times  we  are 
altogether  banished  to  suffer  opprobrium  out  of 
doors ;  our  places,  moreover,  are  occupied  by 
hounds  and  hawks,  and  sometimes  by  a  biped 
beast :  woman,  to  wit,  whose  cohabitation  was  for- 
merly shunned  by  the  clergy,  from  whom  we  have 
ever  taught  our  pupils  to  fly,  more  than  from  the 
asp  and  the  basilisk ;  wherefore  this  beast,  ever 
jealous  of  our  studies,  and  at  all  times  implacable, 
spying  us  at  last  in  a  corner,  protected  only  by  the 
web  of  some  long  deceased  spider,  drawing  her 
forehead  into  wrinkles,  laughs  us  to  scorn,  abuses 
us  in  virulent  speeches,  points  us  out  as  the  only 
superfluous  furniture  lodged  in  the  whole  house, 
complains  that  we  are  useless  for  any  purpose  of 


PHILOBIBLON.  35 

domestic  economy  whatever,  and  recommends  our 
being  bartered  away  forthwith  for  costly  head- 
dresses, cambric,  silk,  twice-dipped  purple  garments, 
woollen,  linen,  and  furs  ;  and  indeed  with  reason, 
if  she  could  see  the  interior  of  our  hearts,  or  be 
present  at  our  secret  councils,  or  could  read  the 
volumes  of  Theophrastus  and  Valerius,  or  at  least 
hear  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Ecclesiasticus  with 
the  ears  of  understanding. 

"  We  complain,  therefore,  because  our  domiciles 
are  unjustly  taken  from  us,  not  that  garments  are 
not  given  to  us,  but  that  those  which  were  formerly 
given  are  torn  off  by  violent  hands,  insomuch  that 
our  souls  adhere  to  the  pavement,  our  belly  is 
agglutinated  to  the  earth,  and  our  glory  is  reduced 
to  dust  (Ps.  xliv.  and  cxix.).  We  labour  under 
various  diseases  ;  our  back  and  sides  ache,  we  lie 
down  disabled  and  paralyzed  in  every  limb,  nobody 
thinks  of  us,  nor  is  there  any  one  who  will  benignly 
apply  an  emollient  to  our  sores.  Our  native  white- 
ness, perspicuous  with  light,  is  now  turned  tawny 
and  yellow;  so  that  no  medical  man  who  may  find 
us  out,  can  doubt  that  we  are  infected  with  jaundice. 
Some  of  us  are  gouty,  as  our  distorted  extremities 


36  PHILOBIBLON. 

evidently  indicate.  The  damp,  smoke,  and  dust 
with  which  we  are  constantly  infested,  dim  the 
field  of  our  visual  rays,  and  superinduce  ophthalmia 
upon  our  already  bleared  eyes. 

"  Our  stomachs  are  destroyed  by  the  severe 
griping  of  our  bowels,  which  greedy  worms  never 
cease  to  gnaw.  We  suffer  corruption  inside  and 
out,  and  nobody  is  found  to  anoint  us  with  tur- 
pentine ;  or  who,  calling  to  us  on  the  fourth  day  of 
putrefaction,  will  say,  '  Lazarus,  come  forth  ! '  The 
cruel  wounds  atrociously  inflicted  upon  us  who  are 
harmless,  are  not  bound  up  with  any  bandage,  nor 
does  any  one  apply  a  plaster  to  our  ulcers.  But 
we  are  thrown  into  dark  corners,  ragged,  shivering, 
and  weeping,  or  with  holy  Job  seated  on  a  dung- 
hill, or  (what  appears  too  indecent  to  be  told)  we 
are  buried  in  the  abysses  of  the  common  sewer. 
The  supporting  cushion  is  drawn  from  under  our 
evangelical  sides,  from  whose  oracles  the  subsidies 
of  the  clergy  ought  first  of  all  to  come,  they  being 
deputed  to  us  for  their  service,  and  thus  the  com- 
mon provision  for  their  maintenance  ought  for  ever 
to  be  derived  from  us. 

"  Again  :  we  complain  of  another  kind  of  calam- 


PHILOBIBLON.  ^ 

ity  that  is  very  often  unjustly  imposed  upon  our 
persons  ;  for  we  are  sold  like  slaves  and  female 
captives,  or  left  as  pledges  in  taverns  without  re- 
demption. We  are  given  to  cruel  butchers  to  be 
cut  up  like  sheep  and  cattle  ;  we  do  not  behold 
this  without  pious  tears,  and  where  there  is  death 
in  a  thousand  forms,  we  die  of  fear  itself,  which  is 
able  to  overthrow  irresolute  man.  We  are  turned 
over  to  Jews,  Saracens,  heretics  and  pagans,  whose 
poison  we  dread  above  all  things,  and  by  whose 
pestiferous  venom  it  is  evident  some  of  our  fore- 
fathers have  been  corrupted. 

"  Truly,  we  who  ought  to  be  considered  as  the 
master  builders  in  science,  who  give  orders  to  our 
subject  mechanics,  are,  on  the  contrary,  subjected 
to  the  government  of  subalterns :  as  if  a  most  noble 
monarch  should  be  trampled  upon  by  rustic  heels. 
Every  botcher,  cobbler,  and  tailor  whatever,  or  any 
artificer  of  whatever  trade,  keeps  us  shut  up  in 
prison,  for  the  superfluous  and  lascivious  pleasures 
of  the  clergy. 

"  We  will  now  proceed  to  a  new  sort  of  insult  by 
which  we  are  injured  both  in  our  persons  and  in 
our  fame,  than  which  we  possess  nothing  dearer  to 


38  PHILOBIBLON. 

us.  Our  genuineness  is  every  day  detracted  from, 
for  new  names  of  authors  are  imposed  upon  us  by 
worthless  compilers,  translators,  and  transformers, 
being  reproduced  in  multiplied  regeneration  ;  our 
ancient  nobility  is  changed,  and  we  become 
altogether  degenerate  ;  and  thus  the  names  of  vile 
authors  are  fixed  upon  us  against  our  will,  and  the 
words  of  the  true  fathers  are  filched  from  them  by 
the  sons.  A  certain  pseudo-versifier  usurped  the 
verses  of  Virgil  while  he  was  yet  living  ;  and  one 
Fidentinus  falsely  arrogated  to  himself  the  books 
of  Martial  the  poet,  upon  whom  the  said  Martial 
justly  retorted  in  these  words — 

Quem  recitas  meus  est,  o  Fidentine,  libellus, 
Sed  male  dum  recitas  incipit  esse  tuus. 

The  book  thou  recitest,  Fidentinus,  is  mine, 
Though  from  vile  recitation  it  passeth  for  thine. 

"  What  wonder  is  it  then  if  clerical  apes  magnify 
their  margins  from  the  works  of  authors  who  are 
dead,  as  while  they  are  yet  living  they  endeavor  to 
seize  upon  their  recent  editions?  Ah,  how  often 
do  you  pretend  that  we  who  are  old  are  but  just 
born,  and  attempt  to  call  us  sons,  who  are  fathers  ? 


PHILOBIBLON.  39 

and  to  call  that  which  brought  you  into  clerical 
existence  the  fabric  of  your  own  studies  ?  In  truth, 
we  who  now  pretend  to  be  Romans,  are  evidently 
sprung  from  the  Athenians ;  for  Carmentis  was 
ever  a  pillager  of  Cadmus  :  and  we  who  are  just 
born  in  England  shall  be  born  again  to-morrow  in 
Paris,  and  being  thence  carried  on  to  Bologna, 
shall  be  allotted  an  Italian  origin,  unsupported  by 
any  consanguinity. 

"  Alas  !  to  how  many  false  transcribers  have  you 
committed  us  to  be  copied  ;  how  corruptly  do  you 
read  us,  and  by  amending,  destroy  what  in  pious 
zeal  you  intend  to  correct.  In  how  many  ways  do 
we  suffer  from  barbarous  interpreters,  who  presume 
to  translate  us  from  one  language  to  another, 
though  ignorant  of  the  idioms  of  either  !  The 
propriety  of  speech  being  thus  taken  away,  its 
sense  is  basely  mutilated,  and  contrary  to  the 
meaning  of  the  author.  The  condition  of  books 
would  have  been  right  genuine,  if  the  presumption 
of  the  Tower  of  Babel  had  not  come  in  its  way, 
and  the  only  preserved  form  of  speech  of  the  whole 
human  race  had  descended  to  us. 

"We   mmII   now  subjoin   the  last  of  our  prolix 


40  PHILOBIBLON. 

complaints,  but  most  briefly,  in  proportion  to  the 
matter  we  have  to  complain  of ;  for  indeed  natural 
use  in  us  is  converted  into  that  which  is  contrary 
to  Nature  :  as,  for  instance,  we  are  given  up  to 
painters  ignorant  of  letters ;  and  we  who  are  the 
light  of  faithful  souls  are  shamefully  consigned  to 
goldsmiths,  that  we  may  become  repositories  for 
gold-leaf,  as  if  we  were  not  the  sacred  vessels  of 
science.  We  fall  unduly  into  the  power  of  laymen, 
which  to  us  is  more  bitter  than  any  death  ;  for  they 
sell  our  people  without  a  price,  and  our  enemies 
become  our  judges.  It  is  clear  from  all  these 
premisses,  what  infinite  invectives  we  could  have 
thrown  out  against  the  clergy  if  we  had  not  spared 
them  for  our  own  credit.  For  the  pensioned  soldier 
venerates  his  shield  and  arms.  Carts,  harrows, 
flails,  and  spades  are  grateful  to  the  worn-out 
ploughman  Coridon ;  and  every  manual  artificer 
exhibits  extraordinary  care  for  his  own  tools.  The 
ungrateful  clerk  alone  undervalues  and  neglects 
those  things  from  which  he  must  ever  take  the 
prognostics  of  his  future  honor." 


CHAPTER  V. 


Good  Professors  of  Religion  write  Books :  had  ones 
arc  occupied  with  other  things. 


A 

HERE  used  to  be  an  anxious  and 
reverential  devotion  in  the  culture 
of  books  of  religious  offices,  and 
the  cleriry  delighted  in  communing 
with  them  as  their  whole  wealth  ; 
for  many  wrote  them  out  with  their  own  hands  in 
the  intervals  of  the  canonical  hours,  and  gave  up 
the  time  appointed  for  bodily  rest  to  the  fabrication 
of  volumes  :  those  sacred  treasuries  of  whose 
labors,  filled  with  cherubic  letters,  are  at  this  day 
resplendent  in  most  monasteries,  to  give  the 
knowledge  of  salvation  to  students,  and  a  delec- 
table light  to  the  paths  of  the  laity.  O  happy 
manual  labor  above  all  agricultural  cares !  O 
devout  solicitude,  from  which  neither  Martha  nor 
Mary  would  have  earned  the  wages  of  corruption  ! 


42  PHILOBIBLON. 

O  joyful  house,  in  which  the  fair  Rachel  envieth 
not  the  prolific  Lya,  but  where  contemplation 
mingles  with  its  own  active  pleasures !  Happy 
provision  for  the  future,  available  to  infinite 
posterity  ;  to  which  no  planting  of  trees,  no  sowing 
of  seeds,  no  pastoral  curiosity  about  any  sort  of 
cattle,  no  building  of  fortified  castles  is  to  be 
compared  !  Wherefore  the  memory  of  those 
Fathers  ought  to  be  immortal,  whom  the  treasure 
of  wisdom  alone  delighted,  who  most  artificially 
provided  luminous  lanterns  against  future  darkness, 
and  prepared,  against  a  dearth  of  hearing  the  Word 
of  God,  bread  not  baked  in  ashes,  nor  musty,  nor 
of  barley,  but  unleavened  loaves  most  carefully 
composed  of  the  purest  flour  of  holy  wisdom,  with 
which  they  fed  the  souls  of  the  hungry.  But  these 
were  the  most  virtuous  combatants  of  the  Christian 
militia,  who  fortified  our  infirmity  with  most 
powerful  arms.  They  were  the  most  cunning  fox- 
hunters  of  their  times,  who  have  yet  left  us  their 
snares,  that  we  may  catch  the  little  foxes  which 
never  cease  to  demolish  the  flourishing  vines. 
Truly  these  mighty  Fathers  are  to  be  remembered 
with    perpetual    benedictions.      Deservedly    happy 


PHILOBIBLON.  43 

would  you  be,  if  a  similar  progeny  were  begotten 
by  you,  if  it  were  permitted  to  you  to  leave  an  heir 
neither  degenerate  nor  doubtful,  to  be  a  help  in 
times  to  come.  But  now  (we  say  it  with  sorrow) 
base  Thersites  handles  the  arms  of  Achilles;  the 
choicest  trappings  are  thrown  away  upon  lazy  asses; 
blinking  night-birds  lord  it  in  the  nests  of  eagles, 
and  the  silly  kite  sits  on  the  perch  of  the  hawk. 
Liber  Bacchus  is  respected,  and  passes  daily  and 
nightly  into  the  belly;  Liber  Codex  is  rejected  far 
and  wide  out  of  reach  ;  so  that  the  simple  modern 
people  are  deceived  by  a  multiplicity  of  equivoca- 
tions of  every  kind  ;  Liber  Patera  takes  precedence 
of  Liber  Patrum  (libations  of  the  Lives  of  the 
Fathers).  The  study  of  the  monks  nowadays 
dispenses  with  emptying  bowls,  not  emending 
books,  to  which  they  neither  scruple  to  add  the 
lascivious  music  of  Timotheus,  nor  to  emulate  his 
shameless  manners  ;  and  thus  the  song  of  merri- 
ment, not  the  plaint  of  mournfulness,  is  become 
the  monasterial  duty.  Flocks  and  flet^^ces,  crops 
and  barns,  gardens  and  olive-yards,  drink  and 
cups,  are  now  the  lessons  and  studies  of  monks ; 
excepting,  of  some  chosen  few,  in  whom  not  the 


44  PHILOBIBLON. 

image  but  a  slight  vestige  of  their  forefathers 
remains. 

Again  :  none  whatever  of  that  matter  is  adminis- 
tered to  us  touching  our  cuhure  and  study,  for 
which  the  Regular  Canons  can  at  this  day  be  com- 
mended ;  who,  though  they  bear  the  great  name  of 
Augustine  from  the  double  rule,  yet  neglect  the 
notable  little  verse  by  which  we  are  recommended 
to  his  clergy  in  these  words  :  "  Books  are  to  be 
asked  for  at  certain  hours  every  day ;  he  who 
demands  them  out  of  hours,  shall  not  receive 
them."  This  devout  canon  of  study  scarcely  any 
one  observes  after  repeating  the  Church  service  or 
Horae  ;  but  to  be  knowing  in  secular  affairs,  and  to 
look  after  the  neglected  plough,  is  held  to  be  the 
height  of  prudence.  They  carry  bows  and  arrows  ; 
assume  arms  and  bucklers ;  distribute  the  tribute  of 
alms  amongst  their  dogs,  not  amongst  the  neces- 
sitous ;  use  dice  and  draughts,  and  such  things  as 
we  are  accustomed  to  forbid  to  secular  men  ;  so 
that  indeed  we  wonder  not  that  they  never  deign  to 
look  upon  us,  whom  they  thus  perceive  to  oppose 
their  immoral  practices. 

Condescend    therefore,    reverend    Fathers,    to 


PHILOBIBLON. 


45 


remember  your  predecessors,  and  to  indulge  more 
freely  in  the  study  of  the  Sacred  Books  ;  without 
which  all  religion  whatever  will  vacillate  ;  without 
which,  as  a  watering-pot,  the  virtue  of  devotion  will 
dry  up  ;  and  without  which  no  light  will  be  held  up 
to  the  world. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

In  Praise  of  the  Ancient,  and  Reprehension  of 
the  Modern,  Religious  Mendica?its. 


^^I^lJ-^^^y  OOR  in  spirit,  but  most  rich  in  faith, 
4  *^J^^ J^  ^^^  offscourings  of  the  world,  the 
0  f^T^Vt  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^^  earth,  despisers  of  worldly 
jn  V^'L^Ti.  affairs,  and  fishers  of  men,  how 
happy  are  you  if,  suffering  penury 
for  Christ,  you  know  you  possess  your  souls  in 
suffering!  For  thus  neither  the  revenger,  from 
lack  of  injury,  nor  the  adverse  fortune  of  relations, 
nor  any  violent  necessity,  nor  hunger  oppresses 
)ou  ;  if  the  will  is  devout  and  the  election  Christi- 
form,  by  which  you  have  chosen  that  best  life  which 
God  Almighty  made  man  set  forth  both  by  word 
and  example.  Truly  you  are  the  new  birth  of  the 
ever  procreating  Church,  recently  and  divinely 
substituted  for  the  Fathers  and  Prophets,  that  the 
sound  of  your  voice  may  go  forth  over  all  the  earth  ; 


48  PHTLOBIBLON. 

for  being  instructed  in  our  salutary  doctrines,  you 
can  promulgate  the  unassailable  doctrine  of  the 
faith  of  Christ  to  all  kings  and  people.  Moreover, 
our  second  chapter  superabundantly  proves  the 
faith  of  the  Fathers  to  be  most  amply  contained  in 
books ;  wherefore  it  most  clearly  appears  that  you 
ought  to  be  zealous  lovers  of  books,  who,  above 
all  other  Christians,  are  commanded  to  sow  upon  all 
waters.  For  the  Most  High  is  no  respecter  of 
persons ;  nor  doth  the  most  pious,  who  was  willing 
to  be  slain  for  sinners,  wish  for  the  death  of  sinners, 
but  He  desires  the  broken-hearted  to  be  healed, 
the  fallen  to  be  raised  up,  and  the  perverse  to  be 
corrected  in  the  spirit  of  lenity.  For  which  most 
salutary  purpose,  our  fostering  mother  Church 
gratuitously  planted  you ;  being  planted,  she  watered 
you  with  favors  ;  and  being  watered,  propped  you 
with  privileges  that  you  might  be  coadjutors  to 
pastors  and  curates  in  procuring  the  salvation  of 
faithful  souls.  Whence  also,  as  their  constitutions 
declare,  the  order  of  preachers  was  principally 
instituted  for  the  study  of  Holy  Writ  and  for  the 
salvation  of  their  neighbors  ;  as  not  only  from  the 
rule    of    their    founder,    Augustine,    who    ordered 


PHILOBIBLON. 


49 


books  to  be  sought  for  every  day,  but  immediately 
upon  reading  the  preface  of  the  said  constitutions, 
at  the  beginning  of  his  own  volume,  they  know  the 
love  of  books  to  be  an  obligation  imposed  upon 
them.  But,  to  their  shame,  both  these  and  others 
following  their  example  are  withdrawn  from  the 
study  and  paternal  care  of  books  by  a  threefold 
superfluous  care;  namely,  of  their  bellies,  clothing, 
and  houses.  For,  neglecting  the  providence  of 
our  Saviour,  whom  the  Psalmist  premises  to  be 
solicitous  about  the  poor  and  mendicant,  they  are 
occupied  about  the  wants  of  their  perishable  bodies, 
such  as  splendid  banquets,  delicate  garments  con- 
trary to  their  rule,  and  even  piles  of  buildings  like 
the  bulwarks  of  fortifications,  raised  to  a  height 
little  consistent  with  the  profession  of  poverty. 
For  the  sake  of  these  three  things.  We,  their  books, 
who  have  ever  advanced  them  to  preferment  and 
conceded  the  seat  of  honor  to  them  amongst  the 
powerful  and  noble,  are  estranged  from  the  affec- 
tions of  their  hearts  and  looked  upon  as  useless 
lumber,  excepting  that  they  make  some  account  of 
certain  tracts  of  little  value,  from  which  they 
produce  mongrel   trifles  and    apocryphal    ravings, 


50  PHILOBIBLON. 

not  for  the  refreshment  of  hungry  souls,  but  rather 
to  tickle  the  ears  of  their  auditors. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  are  not  expounded,  but 
exploded  as  trite  sayings  supposed  to  be  already 
divulged  in  the  streets  and  to  all  men,  whose 
margins,  however,  very  few  have  touched,  whose 
profundity  is  even  so  great  that  it  cannot  be  com- 
prehended by  human  intellect,  however  vigilant  it 
may  be,  at  its  utmost  leisure  and  with  the  greatest 
study.  He  who  constantly  studies  these,  will  be 
able  to  pick  out  the  thousand  maxims  of  moral 
discipline  which  they  enforce  with  the  most  perfect 
novelty,  refreshing  the  understandings  of  their 
hearers  with  the  most  soothing  suavity,  if  He  who 
founded  the  spirit  of  piety  will  only  deign  to  open 
the  door.  For  which  reason  the  first  professors  of 
evangelical  poverty,  taking  leave  of  every  secular 
science  whatever,  gathering  together  the  whole 
force  of  their  minds,  devoted  themselves  to  the 
labors  of  these  holy  writings,  meditating  daily  and 
nightly  on  the  law  of  the  Lord.  Whatsoever  they 
could  steal  from  their  famishing  stomachs,  or  tear 
from  their  half-covered  bodies,  they  applied  to 
emending  or  editing  books,  esteeming  them  their 


PHILUBIBLON.  51 

greatest  gain  ;  their  secular  contemporaries,  holding 
both  their  office  and  studies  in  respect,  having 
conferred  such  books  upon  them  as  the)'  had 
collected  at  great  cost,  here  and  there  in  divers 
parts  of  the  world,  to  the  edification  of  the  whole 
Church. 

Truly  in  these  days,  when  with  all  diligence 
you  are  intent  upon  lucre,  it  might  be  believed 
with  probable  presumption,  according  to  anthro- 
pospathos  (if  the  word  may  be  allowed)  or  human 
feeling,  that  God  entertains  little  anxiety  about 
those  whom  He  considers  to  distrust  His  promises, 
placing  their  hopes  upon  human  foresight,  neither 
considering  the  crow  nor  the  lily  which  the  Most 
High  feeds  and  clothes.  You  ponder  not  upon 
Daniel,  nor  Abacuc  the  bearer  of  the  dish  of  boiled 
pottage,  nor  remember  Elijah  fed  by  angels  in  the 
desert,  again  by  crows  at  the  brook,  and,  lastly,  by 
the  widow  at  Sarepta,  relieved  from  the  cravings 
of  hunger  by  the  divine  bounty,  which  gives  food 
to  all  flesh  in  due  season.  You  are  descending, 
we  fear,  by  a  wretched  ladder,  while  a  reliance  upon 
self-sufficiency  produces  distrust  of  divine  piety, 
but  reliance  upon  self-sufficiency  begets  solicitude 


52  PHILOBIBLON. 

about  worldly  affairs,  and  too  much  solicitude  about 
worldly  affairs  takes  away  the  love  of  books  and 
study,  and  thus  poverty  now  gives  way  through 
abuse,  at  the  expense  of  the  Word  of  God,  though 
you  chose  it  only  for  its  support.  You  draw  boys 
into  your  religion  with  hooks  of  apples,  as  the 
people  commonly  report,  whom  having  professed, 
you  do  not  instruct  in  doctrines  by  compulsion  and 
fear  as  their  age  requires,  but  maintain  them  to  go 
upon  beggarly  excursions,  and  suffer  them  to 
consume  the  time  in  which  they  might  learn,  in 
catching  at  the  favors  of  their  friends,  to  the 
offence  of  their  parents,  the  danger  of  the  boys,  and 
the  detriment  of  the  Order.  And  thus  without 
doubt  it  happens  that  unwilling  boys,  in  no  way 
compelled  to  learn,  when  grown  up  presume  to 
teach,  being  altogether  worthless  and  ignorant. 
A  small  error  in  the  beginning  becomes  a  very 
great  one  in  the  end  ;  for  thus  also  a  certain  and 
generally  burthensome  multitude  of  laymen  grows 
up  in  your  promiscuous  flock,  who,  however,  thrust 
themselves  into  the  office  of  preaching  the  more 
impudently  the  less  they  understand  what  they  talk 
about,  in  contempt  of  the  Word  of  the   Lord,  and 


PHILOBIBLON.  53 

to  the  ruin  of  souls.  Verily  you  plough  with  the 
ox  and  the  ass  contrary  to  the  law,  when  you 
commit  the  culture  of  the  Lord's  field  to  the  learned 
and  unlearned  without  distinction.  It  is  written, 
oxen  plough,  and  asses  feed  by  them  ;  because  it  is 
the  business  of  the  discreet  to  preach,  but  of  the 
simple  to  feed  themselves  in  silence  by  hearing 
sacred  eloquence.  How  many  stones  do  you  throw 
upon  the  heap  of  Mercury  in  these  days  ?  How 
many  marriages  do  you  procure  for  the  eunuchs 
of  wisdom  ?  How  many  blind  speculators  do  you 
teach  to  go  about  upon  the  walls  of  the  church  ? 

O  slothful  fishermen,  who  only  use  other  men's 
nets,  which  you  have  hardly  skill  to  mend  if  broken, 
and  none  whatever  to  weave  anew  !  You  intrude 
upon  the  labors  of  others,  recite  their  composi- 
tions, repeat  their  wisdom  by  rote,  and  mouth  it 
with  theatrical  rant.  As  the  stupid  parrot  imitates 
the  words  it  hears,  so  such  as  you  become  reciters 
of  everything,  authors  of  nothing,  imitating  Balaam's 
ass,  which,  though  naturally  insense  of  language, 
yet  by  her  eloquent  tongue  was  made  the  school- 
mistress both  of  a  master  and  a  prophet. 

Repent,  ye  paupers   of  Christ,   and  studiously 


54  PHILOBIBLON. 

revert  to  us  your  books,  without  whom  you  will 
never  be  able  to  put  on  your  shoes  in  advancement 
of  the  Gospel  of  peace.  Paul  the  apostle,  preacher 
of  the  truth  and  first  teacher  of  the  Gentiles,  ordered 
these  three  things  to  be  brought  to  him  by  Timothy 
instead  of  all  his  furniture — his  cloak,  books,  and 
parchment  (2  Tim.) ;  exhibiting  a  formulary  to 
evangelical  men  that  they  may  wear  the  habit 
ordained,  have  books  to  aid  them  in  studying,  and 
parchment  for  writing,  which  the  apostle  lays  most 
stress  upon,  saying,  "but  especially  the  parch- 
ments." Truly  that  clergyman  is  maimed,  and 
indeed  basely  mutilated,  to  the  wreck  of  many 
things,  who  is  totally  ignorant  of  the  art  of  writing  ; 
he  beats  the  air  with  his  voice ;  he  edifies  only  the 
present,  and  provides  nothing  for  the  absent  or  for 
posterity.  "  A  man  carried  the  inkhorn  of  a  writer 
at  his  loins,  who  set  the  mark  T  upon  the  foreheads 
of  those  who  sighed,"  figuratively  insinuating  that 
if  any  man  is  deficient  in  the  skill  of  writing  he 
must  not  take  upon  himself  the  office  of  preaching 
penitence. 

Finally,   in   closing   the    present  chapter,  your 
books,  administering  the  needful,  supplicate  you  to 


PHILOBIBLON.  55 

turn  the  attention  of  ignorant  youths  of  apt  wit  to 
their  studies,  that  you  may  not  only  truly  teach 
them  truth,  discipline  and  knowledge,  but  terrify 
them  with  the  rod,  attract  them  with  blandishments, 
soothe  them  with  presents,  and  urge  them  with 
penal  severities,  that  they  may  at  once  be  made 
Socratics  in  morals  and  Peripatetics  in  doctrine. 

Yesterday,  as  it  were  at  the  eleventh  hour,  the 
discreet  landlord  introduced  you  into  the  vineyard  , 
repent,  therefore,  of  being  idle  before  it  is  altogether 
too  late.  Would  that  with  the  prudent  steward 
you  would  be  ashamed  of  begging  so  dishonorably  ; 
for  then  without  doubt  you  would  have  leisure  for 
us  your  books,  and  for  study. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Deploring  the  Destruction  of  Books  by  Wars 
and  Fire. 


MOST  high  author  and  lover  of 
peace !  scatter  the  nations  that  are 
desirous  of  war,  more  injurious  to 
books  than  all  other  plagues ;  for 
war,  wanting  the  discretion  of  reason, 
furiously  attacks  whatever  falls  in  its  way,  and,  not 
being  under  the  guidance  of  reason,  it  destroys  the 
vessels  of  reason,  having  no  scale  of  discretion. 
Then  the  wise  Apollo  is  subjected  to  Pluto,  the 
prolific  mother  Phronesis  becomes  Phrenisis,  and 
is  submitted  to  the  power  of  Frenzy.  Then  the 
winged  Pegasus  is  shut  up  in  the  stable  of  Corydon, 
and  the  eloquent  Mercury  is  choked.  The  prudent 
Pallas  is  pierced  by  the  dart  of  error,  and  the 
jocund  Pierides  are  suppressed  by  the  truculent 
tyranny  of  Fury.     O  cruel  sight !  where  Aristotle 


58  PHILOBIBLON. 

the  Phoebus  of  philosophers,  to  whom  the  lord  of 
the  domain  himself  committed  the  dominion  over 
all  things,  is  seen  bound  by  impious  hands,  fettered 
with  infamous  chains,  and  carried  off  from  the  house 
of  Socrates  upon  the  shoulders  of  gladiators  ;  and 
him  who  deserved  to  obtain  the  magistracy  in  the 
government  of  the  world,  and  the  empire  over  its 
emperor,  you  may  see  subjected  to  a  vile  scoffer, 
b}'-  the  most  unjust  rights  of  war. 

O  most  iniquitous  power  of  darkness  !  that 
feared  not  to  trample  upon  the  approved  divinity 
of  Plato,  who  alone  in  the  sight  of  the  Creator  was 
worthy  to  interpose  ideal  forms,  before  he  could 
appease  the  strife  of  jarring  chaos,  and  before  he 
could  invest  matter  with  permanent  form  ;  that  he 
might  demonstrate  the  archetype  world  from  its 
author,  and  that  the  sensible  world  might  be 
deduced  from  its  supernal  prototype. 

O  sorrowful  sight !  where  the  moral  Socrates, 
whose  acts  are  virtue,  and  whose  words  are  doctrine, 
who  produced  justness  of  policy  from  the  principles 
of  Nature,  is  seen  devoted  to  the  service  of  a 
depraved  undertaker !  We  lament  Pythagoras,  the 
parent  of  harmony,  atrociously  scourged  by  furious 


PHILOBIBLON.  59 

female  singers,  uttering  plaintive  groans  instead  of 
songs.  We  pity  Zeno,  the  chief  of  the  Stoics,  who, 
rather  than  divulge  a  secret,  bit  off  his  tongue,  and 
boldly  spat  it  in  the  face  of  a  tyrant.  Alas,  now 
again,  for  the  bruised  Anaxarchus  pounded  in  a 
mortar  by  Nicrocreon  !  Certainly,  we  are  not 
competent  to  lament  with  befitting  sorrow  each  of 
the  books  which  has  perished  in  various  parts  of  the 
world  by  the  hazards  of  war.  We  may,  however, 
record  with  a  tearful  pen  the  horrible  havoc  that 
happened  through  the  auxiliary  soldiers  in  the 
second  Alexandrine  war  in  Egypt,  where  700,000 
volumes,  collected  by  the  Ptolemies,  kings  of  Egypt, 
during  a  long  course  of  time,  were  consumed  by 
fire,  as  Aulus  Gellius  relates  (Attic  Nights,  B.  6, 
c.  17).  What  an  Atlantic  progeny  is  supposed  to 
have  then  perished !  comprehending  the  motions  of 
the  spheres,  all  the  conjunctions  of  the  planets, 
the  nature  and  generation  of  the  galaxy,  the 
prognostications  of  comets,  and  whatsoever  things 
are  done  in  heaven  or  in  the  air.  Who  is  not 
horrified  by  such  an  evil-omened  holocaust,  in  which 
ink  is  offered  up  instead  of  blood,  where  glowing 
sparks  spring  from   the  blood  of  crackling  parch- 


6o  PHILOBIBLON. 

ment ;  where  voracious  flames  consume  so  many 
thousands  of  innocents  in  whose  mouths  no  false- 
hood is  found  ;  where  fire  that  knows  not  when  to 
spare,  converts  so  many  shrines  of  eternal  truth 
into  fetid  ashes !  The  pious  virgin  daughters  of 
Jephthah  and  Agamemnon,  murdered  for  the  glory 
of  their  fathers,  may  be  thought  victims  of  a  minor 
crime.  How  many  labors  of  the  celebrated  Her- 
cules, who,  for  his  skill  in  astronomy,  is  described 
as  having  supported  the  heavens  upon  his  shoulders, 
may  we  imagine  to  have  perished,  when  he  was 
now  for  the  second  time  thrown  into  the  flames  ! 
The  secrets  of  heaven,  that  Inachus  neither  learned 
from  man  nor  by  human  means,  but  received  by 
divine  inspiration,  whatsoever  his  half-brother 
Zoroaster,  the  servant  of  unclean  spirits  dis- 
seminated amongst  the  Brahmins  ;  whatsoever  holy 
Enoch,  the  governor  of  Paradise,  prophesied  before 
he  was  transferred  from  the  world  ;  yea,  whatsoever 
the  first  Adam  taught  his  sons,  as  he  had  previously 
seen  it  in  the  book  of  eternity,  when  rapt  in  an 
ecstasy — may  with  probability  be  thought  to  have 
been  destroyed  by  those  impious  flames.  The 
religion  of  the  Egyptians,  which  the  book  called 


PHILOBIBLON.  6i 

Logistoricus  so  highly  commends ;  the  poHty  of  the 
ancient  Athenians,  who  preceded  the  Athenians  of 
Greece  9,000  years ;  the  verses  of  the  Chaldeans  ; 
the  astronomy  of  the  Arabs  and  Indians  ;  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Jews ;  the  architecture  of  the 
Babylonians  ;  the  Georgics  of  Noah  ;  the  divina- 
tions of  Moses  ;  the  trigonometry  of  Joshua  ;  the 
enigmas  of  Samson ;  the  problems  of  Solomon, 
most  clearly  argued  from  the  cedar  of  Lebanon  to 
the  hyssop ;  the  antidotes  of  yEsculapius ;  the 
grammatics  of  Cadmus  ;  the  poems  of  Parnassus  ; 
the  Oracles  of  Apollo;  the  Argonautics  of  Jason  ; 
the  stratagems  of  Palamedes  ;  and  an  infinity  of 
other  secrets  of  science — are  believed  to  have  been 
lost  in  like  manner  by  fires. 

Would  the  demonstrative  syllogism  of  the 
quadrature  of  the  circle  have  been  concealed  from 
Aristotle,  if  wicked  wars  had  permitted  the  books 
of  the  ancients,  containing  the  methods  of  the 
whole  of  Nature,  to  be  forthcoming?  Or  would  he 
have  left  the  problem  of  the  eternity  of  the  world 
undecided,  or  have  at  all  doubted  about  the 
plurality  of  human  intellects,  and  of  their  perpetuity, 
as  he  is  with  some  reason  believed  to  have  done,  if 


62  PHILOBIBLON. 

the  perfect  sciences  of  the  ancients  had  not  been 
exposed  to  the  pressure  of  odious  wars?  For  by 
wars  we  are  dispersed  in  foreign  countries,  dis- 
membered, wounded,  and  enormously  mutilated, 
buried  in  the  earth,  drowned  in  the  sea,  burned 
in  the  fire,  and  slain  by  every  species  of  violent 
slaughter.  How  much  of  our  blood  did  the  warlike 
Scipio  shed,  when  earnestly  bent  upon  the  over- 
throw of  Carthage,  the  emulous  assailant  of  the 
Roman  empire  ?  How  many  thousands  of  thousands 
did  the  ten  years'  Trojan  war  send  out  of  the  world  ! 
How  many,  upon  the  murder  of  Tully  by  Anthony, 
went  into  the  recesses  of  remote  provinces!  How 
many  of  us,  when  Boethius  was  banished  by 
Theodoric,  were  dispersed  into  the  various  regions 
of  the  world  like  sheep  whose  shepherd  is  slain  ! 
How  many,  when  Seneca  fell  by  the  malice  of 
Nero,  and  willingly  or  unwillingly  went  towards 
the  gates  of  death,  withdrew  weeping,  and  not 
knowing  where  we  ought  to  take  up  our  abode 
when  separated  from  him.  Fortunate  was  that 
transfer  of  books  which  Xerxes  is  described  to  have 
made  from  the  Athenians  to  the  Persians,  and  which 
Zeleucus  brought  back  from  the  Persians  to  Athens. 


PHILOBIBLON.  63 

O,  what  becoming  pride,  what  admirable  exultation 
might  you  behold,  when  the  mother,  leaping  for 
joy,  met  her  children,  and  the  bride-chamber  of  the 
now  aged  parent  was  once  more  pointed  out  to  her 
offspring  as  the  lodging  assigned  to  its  former 
tenants  !  Now  cedar  shelves  with  light  beams  and 
supporters  are  most  neatly  planed,  labels  are 
designed  in  gold  and  ivory  for  each  partition,  in 
which  the  volumes  themselves  are  reverently 
deposited  and  most  nicely  arranged,  so  that  no  one 
can  impede  the  entrance  of  another,  or  injure  its 
brother  by  over-pressure. 

In  all  other  respects,  indeed,  the  damages  which 
are  brought  on  by  the  tumults  of  war,  especially 
upon  the  race  of  books,  are  infinite  ;  and  forasmuch 
also  as  it  is  a  property  of  the  infinite  that  it  can 
neither  be  stepped  over  nor  passed  through,  we 
will  here  finally  set  up  the  pillars  of  our  complaints, 
and,  drawing  in  our  reins,  return  to  the  prayers 
with  which  we  set  out,  suppliantly  beseeching  the 
ruler  of  Olympus  and  the  most  high  Dispenser  of 
all  the  world,  that  he  may  abolish  war,  establish 
peace,  and  bring  about  tranquil  times  under  his  own 
special  protection. 


\ 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Of  the  numerous  Opportu7iities  of  the  Author  of 
Collecting  Books  from  all  Quarters. 

S  there  is  a  time  and  opportunity  for 
every  purpose,  as  Ecclesiastes  wit- 
nesseth  (ch.  iii.),  we  will  now  proceed 
to  particularize  the  numerous  op- 
portunities we  have  enjoyed,  under 
divine  propitiation,  in  our  proposed  acquisition  of 
books.  For,  although  from  our  youth  we  have 
ever  been  delighted  to  hold  special  and  social 
communion  with  literary  men  and  lovers  of  books, 
yet  prosperity  attending  us,  having  obtained  the 
notice  of  his  Majesty  the  King,  and  being  received 
into  his  own  family,  we  acquired  a  most  ample 
facility  of  visiting  at  pleasure  and  of  hunting  as  it 
were  some  of  the  most  delightful  coverts,  the  public 
and  private  libraries  both  of  the  regulars  and 
seculars.     Indeed,  while  we  performed  the  duties 


(^  PHILOBIBLON. 

of  Chancellor  and  Treasurer  of  the  most  invincible 
and  ever  magnificently  triumphant  King  of  England, 
Edward  III.  (of  that  name)  after  the  Conquest — 
whose  days  may  the  Most  High  long  and  tranquilly 
deign  to  preserve ! — after  first  inquiring  into  the 
things  that  concerned  his  Court,  and  then  the 
public  affairs  of  his  kingdom,  an  easy  opening  was 
afforded  us,  under  the  countenance  of  royal  favor, 
for  freely  searching  the  hiding-places  of  books. 
For  the  flying  fame  of  our  love  had  already  spread 
in  all  directions,  and  it  was  reported  not  only  that 
we  had  a  longing  desire  for  books  and  especially 
for  old  ones,  but  that  anybody  could  more  easily 
obtain  our  favor  by  quartos  than  by  money.  Where- 
fore when  supported  by  the  bounty  of  the  aforesaid 
prince  of  worthy  memory,  we  were  enabled  to 
oppose  or  advance,  to  appoint  or  discharge,  crazy 
quartos  and  tottering  folios,  precious  however  in 
our  sight  as  well  as  in  our  affections,  flowed  in  most 
rapidly  from  the  great  and  the  small,  instead  of 
new  year's  gifts  and  remunerations,  and  instead  of 
presents  and  jewels.  Then  the  cabinets  of  the 
most  noble  monasteries  were  opened,  cases  were 
unlocked,  caskets  were  unclasped,  and  astonished 


PHILOBIBLON.  67 

volumes  which  had  slumbered  for  long  ages  in  their 
sepulchres  were  roused  up,  and  those  that  lay  hid 
in  dark  places  were  overwhelmed  with  the  rays  of 
a  new  light.  Books  heretofore  most  delicate,  now 
become  corrupted  and  abominable,  lay  lifeless, 
covered  indeed  with  the  excrements  of  mice  and 
pierced  through  with  the  gnawing  of  worms  ;  and 
those  that  were  formerly  clothed  with  purple 
and  fine  linen,  were  now  seen  reposing  in  dust  and 
ashes,  given  over  to  oblivion,  the  abodes  of  moths. 
Amongst  these  nevertheless,  as  time  served,  we  sat 
down  more  voluptuously  than  the  delicate  physician 
could  do  amidst  his  stores  of  aromatics ;  and  where 
we  found  an  object  of  love,  we  found  also  an 
assuagement.  Thus  the  sacred  vessels  of  science 
came  into  the  power  of  our  disposal — some  being 
given,  some  sold,  and  not  a  few  lent  for  a  time. 

Without  doubt,  many  who  perceived  us  to  be 
contented  with  gifts  of  this  kind,  studied  to  con- 
tribute those  things  freely  to  our  use  which  they 
could  most  willingly  do  without  themselves.  We 
took  care,  however,  to  conduct  the  business  of  such 
so  favorably  that  the  profit  might  accrue  to  them  ; 
justice  therefore  suffered  no  detriment. 


68  PHILOBIBLON. 

Moreover,  if  we  would  have  amassed  cups  of 
gold  and  silver,  excellent  horses,  or  no  mean  sums 
of  money,  we  could  in  those  days  have  laid  up 
abundance  of  wealth  for  ourselves ;  but  indeed  we 
wished  for  books,  not  bags  ;  we  delighted  more  in 
folios  than  florins,  and  preferred  paltry  pamphlets 
to  pampered  palfreys.  In  addition  to  this,  we 
were  charged  with  the  frequent  embassies  of  the 
said  prince  of  everlasting  memory,  and,  owing  to 
the  multiplicity  of  State  affairs,  were  sent  first  to 
the  Roman  Chair,  then  to  the  Court  of  France, 
then  to  various  other  kingdoms  of  the  world,  on 
tedious  embassies  and  in  perilous  times,  carrying 
about  with  us,  however,  that  fondness  for  books 
which  many  waters  could  not  extinguish ;  for  this, 
like  a  certain  drug,  sweetened  the  wormwood  of 
peregrination  ;  this,  after  the  perplexing  intricacies, 
scrupulous  circumlocutions  of  debate,  and  almost 
inextricable  labyrinths  of  public  business,  left  an 
opening  for  a  little  while  to  breathe  the  temperature 
of  a  milder  atmosphere.  O  blessed  God  of  gods 
in  Sion !  what  a  rush  of  the  flood  of  pleasure 
rejoiced  our  heart  as  often  as  we  visited  Paris,  the 
Paradise  of  the  world  !    There  we  longed  to  remain, 


PHILOBIBLON.  69 

where,  on  account  of  the  greatness  of  our  love,  the 
days  ever  appeared  to  us  to  be  few.  There  are 
delightful  libraries  in  cells  redolent  of  aromatics ; 
there  flourishing  greenhouses  of  all  sorts  of  volumes  ; 
there  academic  meads  trembling  with  the  earth- 
quake of  Athenian  Peripatetics  pacing  up  and  down  ; 
there  the  promontories  of  Parnassus,  and  the  por- 
ticos of  the  Stoics.  There  is  to  be  seen  Aristotle, 
the  surveyor  of  arts  and  sciences,  to  whom  alone 
belongs  all  that  is  most  excellent  in  doctrine  in  this 
transitory  world.  There  Ptolemy  extends  cycles 
and  eccentrics  ;  and  Gensachar  plans  out  the  figures 
and  numbers  of  the  planets.  There  Paul  reveals 
his  Arcana ;  and  Dionysius  arranges  and  dis- 
tinguishes the  hierarchies.  There  whatsoever 
Cadmus  the  Phoenician  collected  of  grammatics, 
the  virgin  Carmentis  represents  entire  in  the  Latin 
character.  There  in  very  deed,  with  an  open 
treasury  and  untied  purse-strings,  we  scattered 
money  with  a  light  heart,  and  redeemed  inestimable 
books  with  dirt  and  dust.  Every  buyer  is  apt  to 
boast  of  his  great  bargains ;  but  consider,  how 
good,  how  agreeable  it  is  to  collect  the  arms  of  the 
clerical  militia  into  one  pile,  that  it  may  afford  us 


70  PHILOBIBLON. 

the  means  of  resisting  the  attacks  of  heretics  if  they 
rise  against  us.  Furthermore,  we  are  conscious  of 
having  seized  the  greatest  opportunity  in  this — 
namely,  that  from  an  early  age,  bound  by  no  matter 
what  partial  favor,  we  attached  ourselves  with 
most  exquisite  solicitude  to  the  society  of  masters, 
scholars,  and  professors  of  various  arts,  whom 
perspicacity  of  wit  and  celebrity  in  learning  had 
rendered  most  conspicuous ;  encouraged  by  whose 
consolatory  conversation,  we  were  most  deliciously 
nourished,  sometimes  with  explanatory  investigation 
of  arguments,  at  others  with  recitations  of  treatises 
on  the  progress  of  physics,  and  of  the  Catholic 
doctors,  as  it  were,  with  multiplied  and  successive 
dishes  of  learning.  Such  were  the  comrades  we 
chose  in  our  boyhood ;  such  we  entertained  as  the 
inmates  of  our  chambers ;  such  the  companions  of 
our  journeys  ;  such  the  messmates  of  our  board  ; 
and  such  entirely  our  associates  in  all  our  fortunes. 
But  as  no  happiness  is  permitted  to  be  of  long 
duration,  we  were  sometimes  deprived  of  the 
personal  presence  of  some  of  these  luminaries, 
when.  Justice  looking  down  upon  them  from 
heaven,  well-earned  ecclesiastical  promotions  and 


PHILOBIBLON.  71 

dignities  fell  in  their  way  ;  whence  it  came  to  pass, 
as  it  should  do,  that,  being  incumbents  of  their  own 
cures,  they  were  compelled  to  absent  themselves 
from  our  courtesies. 

Again.  We  will  add  a  most  compendious  way 
by  which  a  great  multitude  of  books,  as  well  old  as 
new,  came  into  our  hands.  Never  indeed  having 
disdained  the  poverty  of  religious  devotees,  assumed 
for  Christ,  we  never  held  them  in  abhorrence,  but 
admitted  them  from  all  parts  of  the  world  into  the 
kind  embraces  of  our  compassion  ;  we  allured  them 
with  most  familiar  affability  into  a  devotion  to  our 
person,  and,  having  allured,  cherished  them  for  the 
love  of  God  with  munificent  liberality,  as  if  we  were 
the  common  benefactor  of  them  all,  but  nevertheless 
with  a  certain  propriety  of  patronage,  that  we 
might  not  appear  to  have  given  preference  to  any 
— to  these  under  all  circumstances  we  became  a 
refuge ;  to  these  we  never  closed  the  bosom  of  our 
favor.  Wherefore  we  deserved  to  have  those  as 
the  most  peculiar  and  zealous  promoters  of  our 
wishes,  as  well  by  their  personal  as  their  mental 
labors,  who,  going  about  by  sea  and  land,  surveying 
the  whole  compass  of  the  earth,  and  also  inquiring 


72  PHILOBIBLON. 

into  the  general  studies  of  the  universities  of  the 
various  provinces,  were  anxious  to  administer  to 
our  wants,  under  a  most  certain  hope  of  reward. 

Amongst  so  many  of  the  keenest  hunters, 
what  leveret  could  lie  hid  ?  What  fry  could  evade 
the  hook,  the  net,  or  the  trawl  of  these  men  ?  From 
the  body  of  divine  law,  down  to  the  latest  con- 
troversial tract  of  the  day,  nothing  could  escape 
the  notice  of  these  scrutinizers.  If  a  devout  sermon 
resounded  at  the  fount  of  Christian  Faith,  the  most 
holy  Roman  Court,  or  if  an  extraneous  question 
were  to  be  sifted  on  account  of  some  new  pretext ; 
if  the  dulness  of  Paris,  which  now  attends  more 
to  studying  antiquities  than  to  subtly  producing 
truth ;  if  English  perspicacity  overspread  with 
ancient  lights  always  emitted  new  rays  of  truth, 
whatsoever  it  promulgated,  either  for  the  increase 
of  knowledge  or  in  declaration  of  the  faith — this, 
while  recent,  was  poured  into  our  ears,  not  mystified 
by  imperfect  narration  nor  corrupted  by  absurdity, 
but  from  the  press  of  the  purest  presser  it  passed, 
dregless,  into  the  vat  of  our  memory.  When 
indeed  we  happened  to  turn  aside  to  the  towns  and 
places  where  the  aforesaid  paupers  had  convents, 


PHILOBIBLON.  73 

we  were  not  slack  in  visiting  their  chests  and  other 
repositories  of  books  ;  for  there,  amidst  the  deepest 
poverty,  we  found  the  most  exalted  riches  treasured 
up ;  there,  in  their  satchels  and  baskets,  we 
discovered  not  only  the  crumbs  that  fell  from  the 
master's  table  for  the  little  dogs,  but  indeed  the 
shewbread  without  leaven,  the  bread  of  angels, 
containing  in  itself  all  that  is  delectable — yea,  the 
granaries  of  Joseph  full  of  corn  and  all  the  furniture 
of  Egypt,  and  the  richest  gifts  that  the  Queen  of 
Sheba  brought  to  Solomon.  These  are  the  ants 
that  lay  up  in  harvest,  the  laborious  bees  that  are 
continually  fabricating  cells  of  honey ;  the  suc- 
cessors of  Belzaleel,  in  devising  whatsoever  can  be 
made  by  the  workman  in  gold,  silver  and  precious 
stones,  with  which  the  Temple  of  the  church  may 
be  decorated ;  these,  the  ingenious  embroiderers 
who  make  the  ephod  and  breastplate  of  the  Pontiff, 
as  also  the  various  garments  of  the  priests.  These 
keep  in  repair  the  curtains,  cloths,  and  red  ram 
skins  with  which  the  tabernacle  of  the  church 
militant  is  covered  over.  These  are  the  husband- 
men that  sow,  the  oxen  that  tread  out  the  corn,  the 
blowers  of  the  trumpets,   the  twinkling   Pleiades, 


74  PHILOBIBLON. 

and  the  stars  remaining  in  their  order,  which  cease 
not  to  fight  against  Sisera.  And  that  truth  may  be 
honored  (saving  the  opinion  of  any  man),  although 
these  may  have  lately  entered  the  Lord's  vineyard 
at  the  eleventh  hour,  as  our  most  beloved  books 
anxiously  alleged  in  the  sixth  chapter,  they  have 
nevertheless  in  that  shortest  hour  trained  more 
layers  of  the  sacred  books  than  all  the  rest  of  the 
vine-dressers,  following  the  footsteps  of  Paul,  who, 
being  the  last  in  vocation  but  the  first  in  preaching, 
most  widely  spread  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Amongst 
these  we  had  some  of  two  of  the  orders — namely, 
Preachers  and  Minors,  who  were  raised  to  the 
pontifical  state,  who  had  stood  at  our  elbows,  and 
been  the  guests  of  our  family ;  men  in  every  way 
distinguished  as  well  by  their  morals  as  by  their 
learning,  and  who  had  applied  themselves  with 
unwearied  industry  to  the  correction,  explanation, 
indexing,  and  compilation  of  various  volumes. 

Indeed,  although  we  had  obtained  abundance 
both  of  old  and  new  works  through  an  extensive 
communication  with  all  the  religious  orders,  yet  we 
must  in  justice  extol  the  Preachers  with  a  special 
commendation  in  this  respect ;  for  we  found  them 


PHILOBIBLON.  75 

above  all  other  religious  devotees  ungrudging  of 
their  most  acceptable  communications,  and  over- 
flowing with  a  certain  divine  liberality  ;  we 
experienced  them,  not  to  be  selfish  hoarders,  but 
meet  professors  of  enlightened  knowledge.  Besides 
all  the  opportunities  already  touched  upon,  we  easily 
acquired  the  notice  of  the  stationers  and  librarians, 
not  only  within  the  provinces  of  our  native  soil,  but 
of  those  dispersed  over  the  kingdoms  of  France, 
Germany,  and  Italy,  by  the  prevailing  power  of 
money ;  no  distance  whatever  impeded,  no  fury 
of  the  sea  deterred  them  ;  nor  was  cash  wanting 
for  their  expenses  when  they  sent  or  brought  us 
the  wished-for  books ;  for  they  knew  to  a  certainty 
that  their  hopes  reposed  in  our  bosom  could  not  be 
disappointed,  but  ample  redemption  with  interest 
was  secure  with  us.  Lastly,  our  common  captivatrix 
of  the  love  of  all  men  (money)  did  not  neglect  the 
rectors  of  country  schools  nor  the  pedagogues  of 
clownish  boys ;  but  rather,  when  we  had  leisure  to 
enter  their  little  gardens  and  paddocks,  we  culled 
redolent  flowers  upon  the  surface,  and  dug  up 
neglected  roots  (not,  however,  useless  to  the 
studious),  and  such  coarse  digests  of  barbarism  as 


ye  PHILOBIBLON. 

with  the  gift  of  eloquence  might  be  made  sanative 
to  the  pectoral  arteries.  Amongst  productions  of 
this  kind  we  found  many  most  worthy  of  renovation, 
which  when  the  foul  rust  was  skilfully  polished  off 
and  the  mask  of  old  age  removed,  deserved  to  be 
once  more  remodelled  into  comely  countenances, 
and  which,  we  having  applied  a  sufficiency  of  the 
needful  means,  resuscitated  for  an  exemplar  of 
future  resurrection,  having  in  some  measure  restored 
them  to  renewed  soundness.  Moreover,  there  was 
always  about  us  in  our  halls  no  small  assemblage 
of  antiquaries,  scribes,  bookbinders,  correctors, 
illuminators,  and  generally  of  all  such  persons  as 
were  qualified  to  labor  advantageously  in  the  ser- 
vice of  books. 

To  conclude.  All  of  either  sex  of  every  de- 
gree, estate  or  dignity,  whose  pursuits  were  in  any 
way  connected  with  books,  could  with  a  knock 
most  easily  open  the  door  of  our  heart,  and  find  a 
convenient  reposing  place  in  our  bosom.  We  so 
admitted  all  who  brought  books,  that  neither  the 
multitude  of  first-comers  could  produce  a  fastidious- 
ness of  the  last,  nor  the  benefit  conferred  yesterday 
be  prejudicial  to  that  of  to-day.     Wherefore,  as  we 


PHILOBIBLON.  jy 

were  continually  resorted  to  by  all  the  aforesaid 
persons  as  to  a  sort  of  adamant  attractive  of  books, 
the  desired  accession  of  the  vessels  of  science,  and 
a  multifarious  flight  of  the  best  volumes  were  made 
to  us.  And  this  is  what  we  undertook  to  relate  at 
large  in  the  present  chapter. 


CHAPTER   IX. 


The  Ancient  Students  stir  passed  the  Modern  in 
Fervency  of  Learning. 

LTHOUGH  the  novelties  of  the 
moderns  were  never  the  burthen  of 
our  desires,  we  have  always  with 
grateful  affection  honored  those  who 
found  leisure  for  the  studies  and 
opinions  of  the  primitive  Fathers,  and  ingeniously 
or  usefully  added  anything  to  them.  We  have 
nevertheless  coveted  with  a  more  undisturbed  desire 
the  well-digested  labors  of  the  ancients.  Whether 
they  were  naturally  invigorated  with  the  capacity 
of  a  more  perspicacious  mind,  whether  they  addicted 
themselves  perhaps  to  more  intense  study,  or 
whether  they  succeeded  by  the  support  of  both 
these  aids,  we  have  clearly  discovered  this  one 
thing — that  their  successors  are  scarcely  competent 
to  discuss  the  discoveries  of  those  who  preceded 


8o  PHILOBIBLON. 

them,  or  to  comprehend  those  things  by  the  shorter 
way  of  instruction  which  the  ancients  quarried  up 
by  their  own  roundabout  contrivances. 

For  as  we  read  that  they  possessed  a  more 
excellent  proportion  of  body  than  what  modern 
times  are  known  to  exhibit,  so  there  is  no  absurdity 
in  believing  that  most  of  the  ancients  were  more 
refulgent  in  the  clearness  of  their  understandings, 
as  the  works  they  performed,  by  both  appear  alike 
unattainable  by  their  successors.  Whence  Phocas 
in  the  prologue  of  his  Grammar  writes : 

Omnia  cum  veterum  sint  explorata  libellis 
Multa  loqui  breviter  sit  novitatis  opus. 

As  in  the  books  of  the  ancients  all  things  have  been  explored, 
Be  it  the  work  of  novelty  to  say  much  in  few  words. 

For  certainly  if  the  question  is  about  ardor  in 
learning  and  diligence  in  study,  these  devoted 
their  whole  life  entirely  to  philosophy ;  but  the 
contemporaries  of  our  age  negligently  apply  a  few 
years  of  ardent  youth,  burning  by  turns  with  the 
fire  of  vice ;  and  when  they  have  attained  the 
acumen  of  discerning  a  doubtful  truth,  they  im- 
mediately become  involved  in  extraneous  business, 


PHILOBIBLON,  8i 

retire,  and  say  farewell  to  the  schools  of  philosophy ; 
they  sip  the  frothy  must  of  juvenile  wit  over  the 
difficulties  of  philosophy,  and  pour  out  the  purified 
old  wine  with  economical  care. 

Further,  as  Ovid  justly  laments,  De  Vetula  : 

Omnes  declinant  ad  ea  quae  lucra  ministrant, 
Utque  sciant  discunt  pauci ;  plures  ut  abundant. 

Sic  te  prostituunt,  O  virgo  Scientia,  sic  te 
Venalem  faciunt,  castis  amplexibus  aptam, 

Non  te  propter  te  quaerentes,  sed  lucra  pro  te : 
Ditarique  volunt  potius  quam  philosophari. 

All  men  incline  to  things  affording  gain ; 

Few  study  wisdom,  more  for  riches  strain  j 
Thee  they  prostitute,  O  virgin  Science ; 

Thee  venal  make,  whose  chaste  compliance 
None  for  thy  own  sake  ask.     Man  rather  tries 

Through  thee  to  thrive  than  to  philosophize. 

And  thus  as  the  love  of  wisdom  is  doomed  to 
exile,  the  love  of  money  rules,  which  is  evidently 
the  most  violent  poison  of  discipline.  In  what 
manner  indeed  the  ancients  set  no  other  limit  to 
their  studies  than  that  of  their  life,  Valerius  Maximus 
shows  to  Tiberius  by  the  examples  of  many  (lib.  8, 
cap.  7).     Carneades  (he  says)  was  a  laborious  and 


82  PHILOBIBLON. 

constant  soldier  of  science  ;  for  having  completed 
his  ninetieth  year,  that  same  was  the  end  of  his 
living  and  philosophizing.  Socrates  during  his 
ninety-fourth  year  wrote  a  most  noble  book. 
Sophocles  being  nearly  one  hundred  years  old 
wrote  his  CEdipod^on,  that  is,  the  Book  of  the 
Acts  of  CEdipus.  Simonides  wrote  verses  in  his 
eightieth  year.  Aulus  Gellius  wished  to  live  no 
longer  than  while  he  was  competent  to  write,  as  he 
testifies  in  the  prologue  of  his  Attic  Nights.  But 
the  philosopher  Taurus,  in  order  to  excite  young 
people  to  study,  used  to  adduce  the  fervor  of  study 
that  possessed  Euclid  the  Socratic,  as  Aulus  Gellius 
relates  in  his  aforesaid  volume  (lib.  6,  cap.  lo.). 
For  as  the  Athenians  hated  the  Megarenses,  they 
decreed  that  if  any  one  of  them  should  enter  Athens 
he  should  be  beheaded ;  but  Euclid,  who  was  a 
Megarensian,  and  had  heard  Socrates  before  that 
decree,  went  afterwards  to  hear  him  in  the  night 
disguised  as  a  woman  and  returned,  the  distance 
from  Megara  to  Athens  being  twenty  miles.  Im- 
prudent and  excessive  was  the  fervor  of  Archimedes, 
a  lover  of  the  geometric  art,  who  would  neither  tell 
his  name,  nor  raise  his  head  from  a  figure  he  had 


PHILOBIBLON.  83 

drawn,  by  doing  which  he  might  have  prolonged 
the  fate  of  his  mortal  life  ;  but  thinking  more  of  his 
study  than  his  life,  he  imbrued  his  favorite  figure 
with  his  vital  blood.  There  are  many  more 
examples  of  the  same  sort  to  our  purpose,  which 
the  brevity  we  affect  does  not  permit  us  to  detail. 
But  with  sorrow  we  say  that  the  celebrated  clerks 
of  these  days  fall  into  a  very  different  course. 
Laboring,  indeed,  under  ambition  at  an  early  age, 
fitting  Icarian  wings  upon  their  feeble  and  untried 
arms,  they  immaturely  seize  upon  the  magisterial 
cap,  and  become  worthless  puerile  professors  of 
many  faculties,  which  they  by  no  means  pass 
through  step  by  step,  but  ascend  to  by  leaps,  after 
the  manner  of  goats  ;  and  when  they  have  tasted  a 
little  of  the  great  stream,  they  think  they  have 
drunk  it  to  the  bottom,  their  mouths  being  scarcely 
wetted.  They  raise  up  a  ruinous  edifice  upon  an 
unstable  foundation,  because  they  were  not  founded 
in  the  first  rudiments  at  the  proper  time  :  being  now 
promoted,  they  are  ashamed  to  learn  what  it  would 
have  become  them  to  have  learnt  when  younger, 
and  thus  in  effect  they  are  perpetually  compelled  to 
pay  the  penalty  of  having  too  hastily  leaped  into 


84  PHILOBIBLON. 

undue  authority.  For  these  and  other  similar 
causes  scholastic  tyros  do  not  obtain,  by  their  scanty 
lucubrations,  that  soundness  of  learning  that  the 
ancients  possessed,  inasmuch  as  they  can  now  be 
endowed  with  honors,  distinguished  by  names, 
authorized  by  the  garb  of  office,  and  solemnly 
placed  in  the  chairs  of  their  seniors,  as  soon  as 
they  have  crept  out  of  their  cradles,  been  hastily 
weaned,  and  can  repeat  the  rules  of  Priscian  and 
Donatus  by  rote.  In  their  teens  and  beardless, 
they  re-echo  with  infantine  prattle  the  Categories 
and  Parmenias,  in  the  writing  of  which  the  great 
Aristotle  is  feigned  to  have  dipped  his  pen  in  his 
heart's  blood.  Passing  the  routine  of  which  facul- 
ties, with  dangerous  brevity  and  a  baneful  diploma, 
they  lay  violent  hands  upon  holy  Moses ;  and 
sprinkling  their  faces  with  the  dark  waters  of 
the  clouds  of  the  air,  they  prepare  their  heads, 
unadorned  by  any  of  the  greyness  of  old  age,  for 
the  mitre  of  the  Pontificate.  By  such  pernicious 
steps  are  these  pests  put  forward,  and  aided  in 
attaining  to  that  fantastical  clerkship.  The  Papal 
provision  is  importuned  by  the  seductive  entreaties, 
or  rather  prayers,  of  cardinals  and  powerful  friends 


PHILOBIBLON.  85 

which  cannot  be  rejected,  and  the  cupidity  of 
relations,  who,  building  up  Sion  upon  their  own 
blood,  watch  for  ecclesiastical  dignities  for  their 
nephews  and  wards  before  they  are  matured  by  the 
course  of  nature  or  sufficient  instruction.  Hence 
not  without  shame  we  observe  the  Parisian  Pal- 
ladium in  our  woful  times,  suffering  under  the 
paroxysm  we  are  deploring.  There,  where  zeal 
was  lately  hot,  it  now  almost  freezes ;  where  the 
rays  of  so  noble  a  school  formerly  gave  light  to 
every  corner  of  the  earth,  there  the  pen  of  every 
scribe  is  now  at  rest,  the  generation  of  books  is  no 
longer  propagated,  nor  is  there  any  one  who  can 
attempt  to  be  considered  as  a  new  author.  They 
involve  their  opinions  in  unskilful  language,  and 
are  destitute  of  all  logical  propriety,  excepting 
that  with  furtive  vigilance  they  find  out  English 
subtleties  which  they  manifestly  carry  off. 

The  admirable  Minerva  seems  to  have  made 
the  tour  of  the  nations  of  mankind,  and  casually 
come  in  contact  with  them  all,  from  one  end  of  the 
world  to  the  other,  that  she  might  communicate 
herself  to  each.  We  perceive  her  to  have  passed 
through     the     Indians,     Babylonians,     Egyptians, 


86  PHILOBIBLON. 

Greeks,  Arabians,  and  Latins.  She  next  deserted 
Athenas,  and  then  retired  from  Rome ;  and  having 
already  given  the  sHp  to  the  Parisians,  she  has  at 
last  happily  reached  Britain,  the  most  renowned  of 
islands,  or  rather  the  Microcosm,  that  she  may  show 
herself  indebted  to  Greeks  and  barbarians.  From 
the  accomplishment  of  which  miracle  it  is  con- 
jectured by  many  that,  as  the  Sophia  of  Gaul  is 
now  become  lukewarm,  so  her  emasculated  militia 
is  become  altogether  languid. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Science  grew  to  Perfection  by  Degrees. —  The  Author 
provided  a  Greek  and  a  Hebrew  Grammar. 


SSIDUOUSLY  searching  out  the 
wisdom  of  the  ancients  according 
to  the  advice  of  the  wise  man  (Eccl. 
xxxix.),  who  says,  "  A  wise  man 
searches  out  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancients;"  we  have  not  led  ourselves  into  that 
opinion  for  the  purpose  of  saying  that  the  first 
founders  cleared  away  all  the  rudeness  of  the  arts, 
knowing  that  the  invention  of  every  one  has  been 
weighed,  in  the  faithful  endeavor  to  make  a  small 
portion  of  science  efficient.  But  through  the  careful 
investigations  of  many,  the  symbols  being  given  as 
it  were  one  by  one,  the  vigorous  bodies  of  the 
sciences  grew  up  by  successive  augmentations  into 
the  immense  copiousness  we  now  behold  :  for 
scholars  ever  melted  down  the  opinions  of  their 


88  PHILOBIBLON. 

masters  in  renewed  furnaces,  running  off  the 
previously  neglected  dross  till  they  became  choice 
gold,  proved,  seven  times  purged  of  earth,  and 
unalloyed  by  any  admixture  of  error  or  doubt. 
Even  Aristotle,  although  of  gigantic  mind,  in  whom 
it  pleased  Nature  to  try  how  great  a  portion  of 
reason  she  could  admit  into  mortality,  and  whom 
the  Most  High  made  but  little  inferior  to  the 
angels,  who  sucked  those  wonderful  volumes  out  of 
his  own  fingers  which  the  whole  world  scarcely 
comprehends,  would  not  have  flourished  if  he  had 
not,  with  the  penetrating  eyes  of  a  lynx,  looked 
through  the  sacred  books  of  the  Babylonians, 
Egyptians,  Chaldeans,  Persians,  and  Medes,  all 
which  he  transferred  into  his  own  treasuries  in 
eloquent  Greek.  Receiving  their  correct  asser- 
tions, he  polished  their  asperities,  cut  off  their 
superfluities,  supplied  their  deficiencies,  expunged 
their  errors,  and  thought  it  right  to  return  thanks, 
not  only  to  those  who  taught  truly,  but  also  to 
those  who  erred,  as  their  errors  point  out  a  way  of 
more  easily  investigating  truth,  as  he  himself  clearly 
shows  (Metaph.  2).  Thus  many  lawyers  compiled 
the  Pandect,  many  physicians  the  Tegni,  and  Avi- 


PHILOBIBLON.  89 

cenna  the  canon.  Thus  Pliny  edited  that  mass  of 
Natural  History,  and  Ptolemy  the  Almagest ;  for 
after  this  manner  it  is  not  difficult  to  perceive  in 
writers  of  annals  that  the  last  always  presupposes  a 
prior,  without  whom  he  would  in  no  way  have  been 
competent  to  detail  past  events.  The  same  thing 
holds  good  amongst  the  authors  of  science,  as  no 
man  produced  any  science  whatever  alone ;  for 
between  the  more  ancient  and  the  more  recent  we 
find  intermediates,  old,  indeed,  if  compared  with 
our  times,  but  new,  if  referred  to  the  groundwork 
of  science  ;  and  these  are  held  to  be  the  most 
learned.  What  would  Virgil,  the  greatest  poet  of 
the  Latins,  have  done  if  he  had  not  at  all  plundered 
Theocritus,  Lucretius,  and  Homer,  or  ploughed 
with  their  heifer?  What  could  Horace  anyhow 
have  pored  over  but  Parthenius  and  Pindar,  whose 
eloquence  he  could  in  no  way  imitate  ?  What 
Sallust,  Tully,  Boethius,  Macrobius,  Lactantius, 
Martianus,  nay,  the  whole  cohort  of  the  Latins  in 
general,  if  they  had  not  seen  the  labors  of  the 
Athenians  or  volumes  of  the  Greeks?  Jerome, 
skilled  in  the  treasures  of  the  three  languages  of 
Scripture ;    Ambrose  ;    Augustine,   who,    however. 


90  PHILOBIBLON. 

confessed  that  he  hated  Greek  literature ;  and  still 
more,  Gregory,  who  is  described  as  altogether 
ignorant  of  it,  would  certainly  have  contributed 
little  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  if  they  had 
borrowed  nothing  from  the  more  learned  Greeks ; 
watered  by  whose  rivulets,  Rome,  as  she  first 
generated  philosophers  after  the  image  of  the 
Greeks,  so  afterwards  in  like  form  she  brought 
forth  treatisers  of  the  orthodox  faith.  The  creeds 
we  chant  are  the  sweat  of  the  Greeks,  declared  in 
their  councils  and  confirmed  by  the  martyrdom  of 
many.  Native  dulness,  however,  as  it  falls  out, 
gives  way  to  the  glory  of  the  Latins ;  inasmuch  as, 
if  they  were  less  learned  in  their  studies,  so  they 
were  less  wicked  in  their  errors.  For  instance,  the 
Arian  malice  nearly  eclipsed  the  whole  Church. 
The  Nestorian  profligacy  presumed  to  rave  against 
the  Virgin  with  blasphemous  madness  ;  for  it  would 
have  taken  from  her  the  name  of  Queen  as  well  as 
the  definition  Theotocos,  ^ioronos  (divine  genetrix), 
had  not  the  invincible  soldier,  Cyril,  been  prepared 
to  attack  and  extinguish  it  in  single  combat.  We 
can  neither  enumerate  the  various  kinds  nor  the 
authors  of  the  heresies  of  the  Greeks ;  for  as  they 


PHILOBIBLON.  91 

were  the  primitive  cultivators  of  the  most  holy 
faith,  so  they  were  also  the  first  sowers  of  darnel, 
as  already  said,  and  as  they  are  declared  to  have 
been  in  histories  worthy  of  credit.  From  this  they 
afterwards  proceeded  to  worse  ;  for  while  they 
endeavored  to  rend  the  seamless  garment  of  the 
Lord,  they  entirely  lost  the  light  of  philosophical 
doctrine ;  and  being  blind,  they  will  fall  into  the 
abyss  of  new  darknesses,  unless  He,  by  His  hidden 
power,  shall  take  care  of  them,  whose  wisdom  num- 
bers cannot  measure.  But  enough  of  th''?.  for  here 
the  power  of  judging  is  taken  from  us.  We  draw 
this  one  conclusion,  however,  from  what  has  been 
said  :  namely,  that  ignorance  of  the  Greek  language 
is  at  this  day  highly  injurious  to  the  study  of  the 
Latins,  without  which  the  dogmas  either  of  the 
ancient  Christians  or  Gentiles  cannot  be  compre- 
hended. The  same  may  credibly  be  supposed  of 
the  Arabic  in  many  astronomical  treatises,  and  of 
the  Hebrew  in  reading  the  Holy  Bible.  Clement 
the  Fifth  providently  meets  these  defects,  if  prelates 
would  only  faithfully  observe  what  is  easily  ordained. 
Wherefore  we  have  taken  care  to  provide  for  our 
scholars  a  Hebrew  as  well  as  a  Greek  Grammar, 


92 


PHILOBIBLON. 


with  certain  adjuncts,  by  the  help  of  which  studious 
readers  may  be  instructed  in  writing,  reading,  and 
understanding  the  said  languages,  although  the 
hearing  alone  with  the  ears  can  represent  propriety 
of  idiom  of  the  mind. 


CHAPTER  XL 


Laws  are,  properly  speakings  neither  Sciences 
nor  Books. 

HE  LUCRATIVE  skill  adapted 
to  worldly  dispensations  in  the 
books  of  positive  law,  is  the  more 
usefully  serviceable  to  the  sons 
of  the  world,  the  less  it  contri- 
butes to  the  sons  of  light,  towards  comprehending 
the  mysteries  of  Holy  Scripture  and  the  arcane 
sacraments  of  the  faith,  inasmuch  as  it  peculiarly 
disposes  to  the  friendship  of  this  world,  by  which 
man  is  made  the  enemy  of  God,  as  James  witnesseth 
(iv.  4).  Hence,  without  doubt,  human  cupidity 
produces  infinite  contentions,  which  it  extends 
oftener  than  it  extinguishes,  by  intricate  laws  that 
can  be  turned  to  either  side.  Positive  law,  however, 
is  distinguished  as  having  emanated  from  lawyers 
and   pious  princes   to   appease   such    contentions. 


94  PHILOBIBLON. 

Truly  when  the  discipline  of  contraries  is  one  and 
the  same,  and  the  reasoning  power  is  available  to 
opposites,  and  at  the  same  time  human  feelings  are 
most  prone  to  mischief,  it  happens  that  the  prac- 
titioners of  this  faculty  indulge  more  in  protracting 
litigation  than  in  peace ;  and  quote  the  law,  not 
according  to  the  intention  of  the  legislator,  but 
violently  twist  his  words  to  the  purpose  of  their 
own  machinations. 

Wherefore,  although  the  master  love  of  books 
possessed  our  mind  from  childhood,  a  longing  for 
which  we  took  to  instead  of  a  desire  for  pleasure, 
yet  an  appetite  for  the  books  of  civilians  took  little 
hold  of  our  affections,  and  we  bestowed  but  little 
labor  and  expense  on  acquiring  volumes  of  that 
sort.  They  are  nevertheless  useful  things,  like  the 
scorpion  in  treacle,  as  Aristotle,  the  sun  of  doctrine, 
said  of  logic  in  the  book,  De  Pomo  et  Morte.  We 
have  even  perceived  a  certain  manifest  difference  of 
nature  between  laws  and  sciences  ;  as  every  science 
is  delightful,  and  desires  that,  its  bowels  being 
inspected,  the  vitals  of  its  principles  may  be  laid 
open,  the  roots  of  its  germination  appear,  and  the 
emanation  of  its  spring  come  to  light ;  for  thus, 


PHILOBIBLON.  95 

from  the  connate  and  consistent  light  of  the  truth 
of  conclusion  from  principles,  the  body  itself  of 
science  will  become  entirely  lucid  without  any 
particle  of  obscurity.  But  laws,  indeed,  as  they 
are  certain  covenants  and  human  enactments  for 
regulating  civil  life,  or  yokes  of  princes  thrown 
over  the  horns  of  their  subjects,  they  refuse  to  be 
reduced  to  the  very  synderesis  of  truth  and  origin 
of  equity,  and  on  that  account  may  be  feared  to 
have  more  of  the  empire  of  will  in  them  than  of  the 
judgment  of  reason  ;  for  the  same  reason  it  is  the 
opinion  of  wise  men  that  the  causes  of  laws  are  for 
the  most  part  not  to  be  discussed.  For  many  laws 
acquire  strength  by  custom  alone,  not  from  syl- 
logistic necessity,  like  the  arts,  as  Aristotle,  the 
Phoebus  of  the  school,  afifirms  in  the  second  book 
of  his  Politics,  where  he  argues  against  the  policy 
of  Hippodamus,  which  promised  to  bestow  rewards 
upon  the  inventors  of  new  laws,  because  to  abolish 
old  laws  and  decree  new,  is  to  weaken  the  validity 
of  those  that  exist ;  for  things  which  receive  stability 
from  custom  alone  must  necessarily  go  to  ruin  by 
disuse. 

From  all  which  it  appears  sufficiently  clear  that 


96  PHILOBIBLON. 

as  laws  are  neither  arts  nor  sciences,  so  neither  can 
law  books  be  properly  called  books  of  science  or 
art ;  nor  is  this  faculty  to  be  numbered  amongst 
the  sciences,  though  by  an  appropriate  word  it  may 
be  called  geology ;  but  books  of  liberal  literature 
are  so  useful  to  Divine  Scripture,  that  the  under- 
standing may  in  vain  aspire  to  a  knowledge  of  it, 
without  their  help. 


'  '  j>  .y  .       .  wy  .    ;, .  yy  .  '  •  .  yy  .  ■  ■  ■,  y  y  .  ■,  ■  •  VV  •  -'     •  V 


A    I 

::-^.\ 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Of  the  Utility  a7td  Necessity  of  Grammar. 

S  we  were  carefully  nurtured  in  the 
reading  of  books,  which  it  was  our 
custom  to  read  or  hear  daily,  we 
duly  considered  how  much  an  im- 
perfect knowledge  even  of  a  single 
word  may  impede  the  business  of  the  understanding, 
as  the  meaning  of  a  proposition,  of  which  any  part 
whatever  is  unknown,  cannot  be  comprehended. 
Wherefore,  with  wonderful  perseverance,  we  or- 
dered the  interpretation  of  exotic  words  to  be  noted 
down.  We  considered  the  orthography,  prosody, 
etymology,  and  diasynthesis  of  the  ancient  gram- 
marians with  unyielding  curiosity,  and  we  took  care 
to  elucidate  terms  becoming  obscure  from  too  great 
age  with  suitable  descriptions,  so  that  we  might 
prepare  a  level  way  for  our  students.  And  this 
is  really  the  whole  reason  why  we  have  labored 


98  PHILOBIBLON. 

to  renovate  so  many  ancient  volumes  of  the 
grammarians  in  emended  editions ;  that  we  might 
so  pave  the  king's  highway  with  them,  that  our 
future  scholars  might  walk  towards  any  of  the  arts 
whatever  without  stumbling. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


A   Vindication  of  Poetry,  and  its  Utility. 


H  E  missiles  of  all  sorts  which  lovers 
of  naked  truth  only  cast  at  poets 
may  be  warded  off  by  a  twofold 
shield ;  because  either  a  graceful 
turn  of  language  is  to  be  learned, 
where  the  subject  is  impure,  or  natural  or  historical 
truth  may  be  traced  where  feigned  but  honest 
sentiments  are  treated  of  under  the  eloquence  of 
typical  fiction.  Although  all  men  certainly  desire 
to  know,  yet  all  do  not  equally  like  to  learn. 
Wherefore,  feeling  the  labor  of  study,  and  finding 
it  to  fatigue  the  senses,  most  of  them  inconsiderately 
throw  away  the  nut  before  they  have  broken  the 
shell  and  got  at  the  kernel ;  for  there  is  a  twofold 
innate  love  in  mankind — namely,  of  self-liberty  in 
conduct,  and  of  a  certain  portion  of  pleasure  in 
labor ;  whence  no  man  submits  himself  to  the  rule 


lOO  PHILOBIBLON. 

of  another  without  cause,  or  undertakes  any  labor 
whatever,  that  is  tiresome,  of  his  own  free  will ;  for 
cheerfulness  perfects  labor  as  beauty  does  youth, 
as  Aristotle  most  truly  affirms  (Nic.  Eth.  lo). 
Wherefore  the  prudence  of  the  ancients  discovered 
a  remedy  by  which  the  wanton  part  of  mankind 
might,  in  a  manner,  be  taken  in  by  a  pious  fraud, 
and  the  delicate  Minerva  lie  hid  under  the  dis- 
sembling mask  of  pleasure. 

We  are  accustomed  to  allure  children  with  gifts, 
to  make  them  willing  to  learn  those  things  freely 
which  we  mean  them  to  apply  to,  even  if  unwilling  ; 
for  does  not  corrupt  nature  impel  itself  by  the 
same  instinct  by  which,  being  prone  to  vice,  it 
transmigrates  to  virtue  ?  This  Horace  declares  to 
us  in  a  short  verse,  where  he  treats  of  the  art  of 
poetry,  saying  : 

Aut  prodesse  volunt  aut  delectare  poetae. 
Poets  would  improve  or  delight  mankind. 

And  the  same  thing  in  another  of  his  verses, 
writing, 

Omne  tulit  punctum  qui  miscuit  utile  dulci. 
He  carries  every  point  who  mixes  the  useful  with  the 

delightful. 


PHILOBIBLON.  loi 

How  many  scholars  has  the  Helleflight  of  Euclid 
repelled,  as  if  it  were  a  high  and  steep  cliff  that 
could  not  be  scaled  by  the  help  of  any  ladder  ! 
This  is  crabbed  language,  say  they,  and  who  can 
listen  to  it  ?  That  son  of  inconstancy,  who  at  last 
wished  to  be  transformed  into  an  ass,  would  perhaps 
never  have  rejected  the  study  of  philosophy  if  it 
had  familiarly  fallen  in  his  way,  covered  with  this 
same  veil  of  pleasure  ;  but  being  suddenly  stupefied 
at  the  chair  of  Crato,  and  thunderstruck  as  it  were 
by  his  infinite  questions,  he  saw  no  safety  whatever 
but  in  flight.  We  have  adduced  this  much  in 
exculpation  of  poets,  and  will  now  show  that  those 
who  study  them  with  a  proper  intention  are  blame- 
less. Ignorance  indeed  of  a  single  word  impedes 
the  understanding  of  the  most  important  sentences, 
as  assumed  in  the  preceding  chapter.  As  the 
sayings  therefore  of  the  sacred  poets  frequently 
allude  to  fictions,  it  necessarily  follows  that  the 
poem  introduced  being  unknown,  the  whole  mean- 
ing of  the  author  is  entirely  obstructed ;  and 
certainly,  as  Cassiodorus  says  in  his  book  upon  the 
Institution  of  Divine  Literature,  those  things  are 
not  to  be  thought  small  without  which  great  ones 


I02  PHILOBIBLON. 

cannot  subsist.  It  holds  good  therefore  that,  being 
ignorant  of  poetry,  we  cannot  understand  Jerome, 
Augustine,  Boethius,  Lactantius,  Sidonius,  and 
many  others,  whose  joyful  songs  a  long  chapter 
would  not  contain.  But  Venerable  Bede  has  in  a 
lucid  discussion  settled  the  point  of  this  sort  of 
doubtfulness,  as  the  great  compiler  Gratian,  the 
repeater  of  many  authors,  recites,  who,  as  he  was 
niggardly  in  the  matter,  so  he  is  found  to  be  con- 
fused in  the  manner  of  his  compilation.  He  writes, 
in  Distinction  37,  beginning,  Turbat  acumen  : 
"  Some  read  secular  literature  for  pleasure,  being 
delighted  with  the  fictions  of  poets,  and  the  orna- 
ment of  their  words ;  but  others  study  them  for 
erudition,  that,  by  reading  the  errors  of  the  Gentiles, 
they  may  detest  them,  and  that  they  may  devoutly 
carry  off  what  they  find  in  them  useful  for  the 
service  of  sacred  erudition  :  such  as  these,  study 
secular  literature  laudably."    Thus  far  Bede. 

Admonished  by  this  salutary  instruction,  let  the 
detractors  of  poetical  students  be  silent  for  the 
present ;  nor  should  ignorant  people  of  this  sort 
wish  for  fellow-ignoramuses,  for  this  is  like  the 
solace  of  the  miserable.     Let  every  man  therefore 


PHILOBIBLON. 


103 


confine  himself  to  the  feelings  of  a  pious  intention  ; 
he  may  thus  make  his  study  grateful  to  God  from 
any  materials  whatever,  the  circumstances  of  virtue 
being  observed.  And  if  he  should  become  a  poet, 
as  the  great  Maro  confesses  himself  to  have  done 
by  the  help  of  Ennius,  he  has  not  lost  his  labor. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
Of  those  who  ought  most  particularly  to  Love  Books. 


O  him  who  recollects  what  has  been 
said,  it  is  evident  and  perspicuous 
who  ought  to  be  the  greatest 
lovers  of  books.  For  who  stand 
most  in  need  of  wisdom  in  ful- 
filling the  duties  of  their  calling  usefully  ?  Those, 
without  doubt,  who  are  most  firmly  bound  to  exhibit 
the  most  ready  and  anxious  affection  of  a  grateful 
heart  for  the  sacred  vessels  of  wisdom.  But  as 
Aristotle,  the  Phoebus  of  philosophers,  who  is 
neither  mistaken  nor  to  be  mistaken  in  human 
affairs,  says  in  the  proem  of  his  Metaphysics  :  "  It 
is  the  business  of  a  wise  man  to  regulate  both  him- 
self and  others  properly."  Wherefore  princes  and 
prelates,  judges  and  teachers,  and  all  other  directors 
of  public  affairs  whatever,  as  they  have  need  of 
wisdom  beyond  other  men,  so  they  ought  to  be 


io6  PHILOBIBLON. 

zealous  beyond  other  men  about  the  vessels  of  wis- 
dom. Boethius  indeed  emblematically  represented 
Philosophy  holding  a  sceptre  in  her  left  hand,  and 
a  book  in  her  right ;  by  which  it  is  evidently  shown 
to  all  men  that  no  one  can  duly  govern  a  State 
without  books.  You,  says  Boethius,  addressing 
himself  to  Philosophy,  sanctioned  this  axiom  by  the 
mouth  of  Plato — "That  States  would  be  happy  if 
those  who  studied  wisdom  ruled  them,  or  if  it  could 
happen  that  wisdom  had  the  appointment  of  their 
rulers."  Again,  the  bearing  of  the  emblem  itself 
insinuates  this  to  us — that  inasmuch  as  the  right 
hand  excels  the  left,  insomuch  a  contemplative  life 
is  more  worthy  than  an  active ;  and  at  the  same 
time  it  is  shown  to  be  the  business  of  a  wise  man, 
first  to  employ  himself  in  the  study  of  truth,  and 
then  in  the  dispensation  of  temporal  affairs,  each  in 
its  turn.  We  read  that  Philip  devoutly  returned 
thanks  to  the  gods,  because  they  had  granted  to 
Alexander  to  be  born  in  the  days  of  Aristotle, 
educated  under  whose  tuition  he  might  be  worthy 
to  govern  his  paternal  kingdom.  As  Phaeton,  be- 
come the  driver  of  his  father's  chariot,  was  ignorant 
of  its  management,  and  unfortunately  administered 


PHILOBIBLON.  107 

the  heat  of  Phoebus,  sometimes  at  too  near  and 
sometimes  at  too  remote  a  distance,  he  justly 
deserved  to  be  struck  with  thunder  for  his  unsteady 
driving,  and  that  all  below  might  not  be  put  in 
peril.  The  histories  both  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins 
relate  that  there  were  no  noble  princes  amongst 
them  who  were  unskilled  in  literature.  The  sacred 
Mosaic  law,  prescribing  a  rule  for  a  king  by  which 
he  must  reign,  commands  him  to  have  the  book  of 
Divine  law  written  out  for  himself,  according  to 
the  copy  set  forth  by  the  priest,  in  which  he  is 
to  read  all  the  days  of  his  life.  Truly  God  himself, 
who  made,  and  daily  and  individually  fashions  the 
hearts  of  men,  had  sufficiently  known  the  slip- 
periness  of  human  memory,  and  the  instability  of 
virtuous  intentions  in  mankind.  For  which  reason 
it  was  His  will  that  there  should  be  a  book,  an 
antidote  as  it  were  to  all  evil,  of  which  He  ordered 
the  continued  reading  and  use,  as  the  most  whole- 
some daily  food  of  the  spirit;  by  which  the  under- 
standing, being  refreshed  and  neither  enervated 
nor  doubtful,  might  be  altogether  fearless  in  action. 
This,  John  of  Salisbury  elegantly  touches  upon  in 
his  Policraticon  (lib.  4).     To  conclude  :  All  sorts 


io8 


PHILOBIBLON. 


of  men  who  are  distinguished  by  the  tonsure  or 
clerical  name,  against  whom  the  fourth,  fifth,  and 
sixth  chapters  of  this  book  complained,  are  bound  to 
render  service  to  books  with  perpetual  veneration. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


Of  the  manifold  Effects  of  the  Sciences  which  are 
contained  in  Books. 

T  is  beyond  the  wit  of  man,  however 
deeply  he  may  have  drunk  of  the 
Pegasean  fountain,  perfectly  to  un- 
fold the  title  of  this  present  chapter. 
If  any  one  can  speak  with  the 
tongues  of  men  and  angels ;  if  he  can  be  trans- 
formed into  Mercury  or  TuUy ;  if  he  can  charm 
with  the  creamy  eloquence  of  Livy ;  if  he  can  plead 
with  the  suavity  of  Demosthenes — even  he  will 
allege  the  hesitation  of  Moses,  or  confess  with 
Jeremiah  that  he  is  a  child,  not  yet  knowing  how  to 
speak,  or  will  imitate  the  echo  resounding  in  the 
lofty  mountains ;  for  the  love  of  books  is  evidently 
the  love  of  wisdom,  which  has  been  proved  to  be 
ineffable.  This  love  is  also  called  by  a  Greek  word, 
Philosophy,  whose  virtue  no  created  intelligence 
comprehends,  wherefore    it  is  believed  to  be  the 


no  PHILOBIBLON. 

mother  of  everything  that  is  good  (Wisd,  vii.) ;  for 
like  a  heavenly  dew  it  extinguishes  the  heat  of 
carnal  vices,  when  the  intense  commotion  of  the 
animal  powers  abates  the  force  of  natural  virtue ; 
by  entirely  expelling  idleness,  which  being  removed, 
every  particle  of  concupiscence  will  perish.  Hence 
Plato  says,  in  Phsedo,  "  The  philosopher  is  manifest 
in  this — that  he  separates  the  soul  more  widely 
from  communion  with  the  body  than  other  men." 
Love  (says  Jerome)  the  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  you  will  not  love  the  vices  of  the  flesh. 
The  godlike  Zenocrates  demonstrated  this  in  the 
firmness  of  his  purpose,  whom  the  noble  strumpet 
Phryne  defined  to  be  a  statue,  and  not  a  man,  as 
no  enticement  was  able  to  shake  his  chastity ;  as 
Valerius  relates  at  large  (lib.  4,  cap.  3).  Our  Origen 
is  another  example ;  who,  that  he  might  not  chance 
to  be  effeminated  by  omnipotent  woman,  chose  the 
medium  between  the  two  sexes  by  the  abnegation 
of  his  extremities.  A  spiteful  remedy  truly — neither 
consonant  to  nature  nor  to  virtue,  whose  business 
is  not  to  make  man  insensible  of  the  passions,  but 
to  check  the  first  efforts  of  insubordination  by  the 
power  of  reason.     Again  :  All  who  are  affected  by 


PHILOBIBLON.  Ill 

the  love  of  books,  hold  worldly  affairs  and  money 
very  cheap,  as  Jerome  writes  to  Vigilantius 
(Epist.  54),  "  It  is  not  for  the  same  man  to  ascer- 
tain the  value  of  gold  coin  and  of  writings  ;  "  which 
somebody  thus  repeated  in  verse  : 

No  tinker's  hand  shall  dare  a  book  to  stain ; 

No  miser's  heart  can  wish  a  book  to  gain  ; 
The  gold  assayer  cannot  value  books; 

On  them  the  epicure  disdainful  looks. 
One  house  at  once,  believe  me,  cannot  hold. 

Lovers  of  books  and  hoarders  up  of  gold. 

Nulla  libris,  erit  apta  manus  ferrugine  tincta. 

Nee  nummata  queunt  corda  vacare  libris. 
Non  est  ejusdem  nummos  librosque  probare. 

Persequitur  libros,  grex  Epicure  tuus. 
Nummipetae  cum  libricoUs  nequeunt  simul  esse, 

Ambos,  crede  mihi,  non  tenet  una  domus. 

No  man  therefore  can  serve  Mammon  and  books. 
The  deformities  of  vice  are  highly  reprobated  in 
books ;  so  that  they  are  thence  said  to  detest  vice 
in  all  its  forms,  who  delight  in  perusing  books. 
The  demon  who  is  named  after  Science,  is  most 
easily  triumphed  over  by  the  knowledge  of  books  ; 
his  numerous  versatile  frauds,  and  thousand  per- 


112  PHILOBIBLON. 

nicious  meanderings,  are  laid  open  to  the  readers 
of  books,  that  he  may  not  fraudulently  circumvent 
the  innocent,  by  transforming  himself  into  an  angel 
of  light.  The  divine  reverence  is  revealed  to  us  by 
books ;  the  virtues  by  which  it  is  cultivated  are 
most  expressly  divulged,  and  the  reward  is  described 
which  the  truth,  that  neither  deceives  nor  is  de- 
ceived, promises.  The  contemplation  of  divine 
literature  in  which  the  Creator  and  the  creature  are 
alternately  beheld,  and  which  is  drawn  from  the 
eternal  stream  of  pleasure,  is  a  perfect  representa- 
tion of  future  beatitude.  Faith  is  founded  on  the 
power  of  letters ;  Hope  is  confirmed  by  the  solace 
of  books,  as  we  retain  it  by  patience  and  the  con- 
solation of  Scripture  ;  Charity  is  not  inflated,  but 
edified  by  the  knowledge  of  true  literature ;  nay, 
the  Church  appears,  in  the  clearest  light,  to  be 
established  upon  the  Sacred  Books.  Books  are 
delightful  when  prosperity  happily  smiles;  when 
adversity  threatens,  they  are  inseparable  com- 
forters. They  give  strength  to  human  compacts, 
nor  are  grave  opinions  brought  forward  without 
books.  Arts  and  sciences,  the  benefits  of  which  no 
mind   can    calculate,    depend    upon    books.     How 


PHILOBIBLON.  113 

great  is  the  wonderful  power  arising  from  books  ! 
for  by  them  we  see  not  only  the  ends  of  the  world, 
but  of  time  ;  and  we  contemplate  alike  things  that 
are,  and  things  that  are  not,  as  in  a  sort  of  mirror 
of  eternity.  In  books,  we  ascend  mountains  and 
fathom  the  depths  of  the  abyss  ;  we  behold  varieties 
of  fishes  which  the  common  atmosphere  can  by  no 
means  contain  in  soundness;  we  distinguish  the 
peculiarities  of  rivers  and  springs,  and  different 
countries,  in  volumes.  We  dig  up  the  various 
kinds  of  metals,  gems,  and  minerals,  and  substances 
of  all  sorts,  out  of  books ;  and  we  learn  the  virtues 
of  herbs,  trees  and  plants,  and  behold  at  leisure 
the  whole  offspring  of  Neptune,  Ceres,  and  Pluto ; 
for  if  we  are  pleased  to  visit  the  inhabitants  of 
heaven,  by  walking  up  Taurus,  Caucasus,  and 
Olympus,  we  transcend  the  kingdoms  of  Jove,  and 
with  lines  and  compasses  measure  the  territories  of 
the  seven  planets,  and  at  last  survey  the  great 
firmament  itself,  decorated  with  signs,  degrees,  and 
configurations  in  endless  variety. 

There  we  survey  the  Antarctic  Pole,  which  eye 
hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  and  with  delectable 
pleasure  we  admire  the  luminous  way  of  the  Galaxy, 


114  PHILOBIBLON. 

and  the  Zodiac  painted  with  celestial  animals. 
From  this  we  pass  on,  through  books,  to  separate 
substances ;  and  as  the  intellect  greets  kindred 
intelligences  with  the  eye  of  the  mind,  it  discerns 
and  cleaves  to  the  First  Cause  of  all  the  immov- 
able Mover  of  infinite  power,  in  love  without  end. 
Behold  how,  being  led  on  by  books,  we  obtain  the 
reward  of  our  beatitude  while  we  are  yet  wayfarers  : 
what  more  can  we  wish  for?  Without  doubt,  as 
Seneca  teaches  us  in  his  eighty-fourth  Letter, 
beginning  Desij — "  Leisure  without  letters  is  death, 
and  the  sepulture  of  the  living  man  ;"  so  we  justly 
conclude,  from  a  converse  meaning,  that  to  be 
employed  with  literature  and  books  is  life. 

Again,  through  books  we  intimate  both  to 
friends  and  enemies  things  that  we  can  by  no  means 
safely  entrust  to  messengers,  inasmuch  as  access  to 
the  chambers  of  princes  is  generally  conceded  to  a 
book,  from  which  the  voice  of  the  author  would 
be  altogether  excluded,  as  Tertullian  says  in  the 
beginning  of  his  Apologetics.  When  we  are  kept 
in  prison,  in  chains,  and  entirely  deprived  of  bodily 
liberty,  we  make  use  of  the  embassies  of  books  to 
our  friends,  and  to  them  we  commit  the  expediting 


PHILOBIBLON.  115 

of  our  causes,  and  we  transmit  them  there  where 
access  could  not  be  made  by  ourselves  in  case  of 
death.  By  books  we  remember  the  past,  and  in  a 
certain  manner  prophesy  the  future,  and  we  fix 
things  present  that  are  vacillating  and  transient  in 
the  memory  of  writing. 

It  was  a  felicitous  studiousness  and  a  studious 
felicity  of  the  powerful  eunuch,  of  whom  it  is 
related,  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  Acts,  that  the  love 
of  prophetic  reading  so  vehemently  excited  him, 
that  he  never  ceased  to  read  on  account  of  travel- 
ing :  he  had  given  up  the  form  of  Queen  Candace 
to  oblivion,  had  removed  the  treasures  he  had  the 
charge  of  from  the  care  of  his  heart,  and  was 
alike  regardless  of  the  road,  and  of  the  chariot  in 
which  he  was  carried — the  love  of  his  book  alone 
had  claimed  this  domicile  of  chastity,  disposed  by 
which  he  was  already  worthy  to  enter  the  gate  of 
the  Faith.  O  gratifying  love  of  books,  that  by 
the  grace  of  baptism  made  this  son  of  Hell  and 
nursling  of  Tartarus  a  son  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 

Let  the  impotent  pen  now  cease  to  consummate 
the  tenor  of  an   infinite   undertaking,  lest  it  may 


ii6 


PHILOBIBLON. 


seem  rashly  to  encounter  what  in  the  beginning 
was  acknowledged  to  be  impossible  for  any  one  to 
accomplish. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


Of  writing  New  Books  and  repairing  old  Ones. 


S  it  is  necessary  for  a  State  to  provide 
military  arms,  and  prepare  plentiful 
stores  of  provisions  for  soldiers  who 
are  about  to  fight,  so  it  is  evidently 
worth  the  labor  of  the  Church 
militant  to  fortify  itself  against  the  attacks  of 
pagans  and  heretics  with  a  multitude  of  sound 
books.  But  because  everything  that  is  serviceable 
to  mortals  suffers  the  waste  of  mortality  through 
lapse  of  time,  it  is  necessary  for  volumes  corroded 
by  age  to  be  restored  by  renovated  successors, 
that  perpetuity,  repugnant  to  the  nature  of  the 
individual,  may  be  conceded  to  the  species.  Hence 
it  is  that  Ecclesiastes  significantly  says,  in  the 
1 2th  chapter,  "There  is  no  end  of  making  many 
books."  For  as  the  bodies  of  books  suffer  con- 
tinual detriment  from  a  combined  mixture  of  con- 


ii8  PHILOBIBLON. 

traries  in  their  composition,  so  a  remedy  is  found 
out  by  the  prudence  of  clerks,  by  which  a  holy 
book  paying  the  debt  of  nature  may  obtain  an 
hereditary  substitute,  and  a  seed  may  be  raised  up 
like  to  the  most  holy  deceased,  and  that  saying  of 
Ecclesiasticus,  chapter  xxx.,  be  verified,  "  The 
father  is  dead,  and  as  it  were  not  dead,  for  he  hath 
left  behind  him  a  son  like  unto  himself."  The 
transcribers  therefore  of  old  books  are,  as  it  were, 
a  sort  of  propagators  of  new  sons,  to  whom  that 
paternal  duty  has  devolved,  that  the  common  stock 
may  not  be  diminished.  Transcribers  of  this  sort 
are  justly  called  antiquaries,  whose  studies  Cas- 
siodorus  confessed  pleased  him  most  of  all  the 
things  that  are  accomplished  by  bodily  labor,  thus 
noticing  it  in  his  Institution  of  Divine  Letters, 
cap.  3  : — "  Happy  science  (he  says),  praiseworthy- 
diligence,  to  unfold  language  with  the  fingers,  to 
give  salvation  to  mortals  in  silence,  and  to  fight 
against  the  illicit  temptations  of  the  devil  with  pen 
and  ink!"     So  far  Cassiodorus. 

Moreover,  our  Saviour  exercised  the  office  of  a 
writer,  when,  stooping  down.  He  wrote  with  His 
finger  on  the  ground  (John  viii.),  that   no   man, 


PHILOBIBLON.  119 

however  noble,  may  disdain  to  do  that  which  the 
wisdom  of  God  the  Father  is  seen  to  have  done. 
O  singular  serenity  of  writing,  in  the  delineation  of 
which  the  artificer  of  the  world,  at  whose  tremen- 
dous name  every  knee  is  bent,  bowed  down  !  O  ven- 
erable invention,  singularly  above  all  contrivances 
made  by  the  hand  of  man,  in  which  the  breast  of 
the  Lord  was  humbly  inclined,  in  which  the  finger 
of  God  was  applied  to  perform  the  office  of  a  pen  ! 
W.e  do  not  read  that  the  Son  of  God  sowed  or 
ploughed,  or  wove  or  dug,  or  that  any  other  of  the 
mechanical  arts  were  becoming  to  the  divine  wisdom 
humanized,  excepting  to  trace  letters  by  writing, 
that  every  noble  man  and  sciolist  may  learn  that 
fingers  were  given  to  man  for  the  business  of 
writing  rather  than  for  fighting.  Wherefore  we 
approve  of  the  opinion  of  many  books,  which  deem 
a  clergyman  unskilled  in  writing  to  be  in  a  certain 
manner  maimed,  as  aforesaid  in  Chapter  VI.  God 
himself  inscribes  the  just  in  the  book  of  the  living. 
Moses  indeed  received  stone  tables  written  upon 
by  the  finger  of  God.  Job  exclaims,  "  Let  him  who 
gives  judgment  write  a  book."  The  trembling 
Belshazzar  saw  fingers  writing  on  the  wall,  "Mene, 


I20  PHILOBIBLON. 

Tekel,  Upharsin"  (Dan.  v.).  "I,"  says  Jeremiah, 
"wrote  in  a  volume  with  ink"  (Jer.  xxx.).  Christ 
thus  commanded  His  beloved  John:  "What  you 
see,  write  in  a  book"  (Apoc.  i.).  The  office  of  a 
writer  was  also  enjoined  by  Isaiah  and  by  Joshua, 
that  the  practice  as  well  as  the  skill  might  be  com- 
mended to  posterity.  The  King  of  kings,  and 
Lord  of  lords,  Christ  himself,  had  writing  upon 
His  garment  and  upon  His  thigh  ;  as  without 
writing,  the  perfect  regal  ornament  of  the  Omni- 
potent cannot  be  apparent. 

Those  who  write  books  of  holy  science  do  not 
cease  to  teach  when  dead.  Paul  did  greater  service 
in  forming  the  Church  by  writing  holy  Epistles, 
than  by  evangelizing  verbally  to  the  Gentiles  and 
Jews :  for  the  compiler  continues  by  books  from 
day  to  day  what  the  traveler  laid  in  the  earth 
formerly  began  ;  and  thus  the  prophetic  words 
about  teachers  writing  books  are  verified — "They 
who  teach  many  according  to  righteousness  shall 
exist  like  the  stars  to  all  eternity"  (Dan.  xii.). 
Moreover,  Catholic  doctors  have  determined  that 
the  deep  researches  of  the  ancients,  before  God 
deluged  the  original  world  by  a  general  flood,  are 


PHILOBIBLON.  121 

to  be  ascribed  to  miracle  and  not  to  Nature;  as 
God  granted  them  as  much  of  life  as  was  requisite 
for  discovering  and  inscribing  the  sciences  in  books, 
amongst  which,  according  to  Josephus,  the  wonder- 
ful diversities  of  astronomy  required  a  period  of 
600  years,  that  they  might  be  experimentally  sub- 
mitted to  observation.  But  indeed  they  do  not 
insinuate  that  the  productions  of  the  earth  did  not 
afford  a  more  useful  aliment  to  mortals  in  those 
primitive  times  than  they  do  now  ;  by  which  not 
only  a  more  exhilarating  energy  of  body  was  given, 
but  also  a  more  durable  and  flourishing  age ;  added 
to  which,  it  conferred  not  a  little  to  their  strength, 
that  the  superfluities  of  voluptuousness  were  in 
every  way  discarded. 

Therefore  whosoever  thou  art,  being  endowed 
with  the  gift  of  God  according  to  the  counsel  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  (Eccles.  xxxviii.),  write  wisdom 
while  you  have  leisure,  that  your  reward  with  the 
blessed  and  the  length  of  your  days  may  be 
increased.  Now  if  we  turn  our  discourse  to  the 
princes  of  the  world,  we  find  great  emperors  not 
only  to  have  flourished  by  skill  in  the  art  of  writing, 
but  for  the  most  part  to  have  indulged  in  the  prac- 


122  PHILOBIBLON. 

tice  of  it.  Julius  Caesar,  the  first  of  them  all  as 
well  in  time  as  in  virtue,  left  Commentaries  upon 
the  Gallic  and  Civil  wars,  written  out  by  himself; 
he  also  made  two  books  of  Analogy,  and  as  many 
against  Cato  (Anticatos),  and  a  poem  titled  The 
Journey,  and  many  other  tracts.  And  Julius,  as 
well  as  Augustus,  invented  secret  modes  of  writing 
letters,  that  they  might  conceal  what  they  wrote ; 
for  Julius  put  the  fourth  letter  for  the  first,  and  so 
went  through  the  alphabet ;  but  Augustus  put  the 
second  for  the  first,  and  the  third  for  the  second ; 
and  such  was  the  custom  afterwards.  This  last  is 
said  to  have  read  and  written  daily,  and  even  to 
have  declaimed,  in  the  greatest  pressure  of  affairs, 
during  the  Mutinensian  war.  Tiberius  wrote  lyric 
verse  and  some  Greek  poems.  Claudius  in  like 
manner,  skilled  both  in  the  Greek  and  Latin 
languages,  made  various  books.  But  in  the  art  of 
writing,  Titus  went  beyond  these  and  others,  who 
imitated  the  handwriting  of  whomsoever  he  pleased 
with  the  utmost  facility,  and  therefore  confessed 
that,  if  he  had  chosen,  he  could  have  become  a 
great  forger.  All  these  things  Suetonius  notices 
in  his  Lives  of  the  Twelve  Caesars. 


llKf^^^^^f^li^^ 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Of  handling  Books  in  a  cleanly  Manner^  and  keeping 
them  in  Order. 


E  not  only  set  before  ourselves  a 
service  to  God,  in  preparing 
volumes  of  new  books,  but  we 
exercise  the  duties  of  a  holy  piety> 
if  we  first  handle  so  as  not  to 
injure  them,  then  return  them  to  their  proper 
places,  and  commend  them  to  undefiling  custody, 
that  they  may  rejoice  in  their  purity  while  held  in 
the  hand,  and  repose  in  security  when  laid  up  in 
their  repositories.  Truly,  next  to  the  vestments 
and  vessels  dedicated  to  the  body  of  the  Lord, 
holy  books  deserve  to  be  most  decorously  handled 
by  the  clergy,  upon  which  injury  is  inflicted  as 
often  as  they  presume  to  touch  them  with  a  dirty 
hand.  Wherefore  we  hold  it  expedient  to  exhort 
students  upon  various  negligences,  which  can 
always  be  avoided,  but  which  are  wonderfully 
injurious  to  books. 


124  PHILOBIBLON. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  let  there  be  a  mature 
decorum  in  opening  and  closing  of  volumes,  that 
they  may  neither  be  unclasped  with  precipitous 
haste,  nor  thrown  aside  after  inspection  without 
being  duly  closed  ;  for  it  is  necessary  that  a  book 
should  be  much  more  carefully  preserved  than  a 
shoe.  But  school  folks  are  in  general  perversely 
educated,  and,  if  not  restrained  by  the  rule  of  their 
superiors,  are  puffed  up  with  infinite  absurdities ; 
they  act  with  petulance,  swell  with  presumption, 
judge  of  everything  with  certainty,  and  are  inex- 
perienced in  anything. 

You  will  perhaps  see  a  stiff-necked  youth 
lounging  sluggishly  in  his  study  :  while  the  frost 
pinches  him  in  winter  time,  oppressed  with  cold, 
his  watery  nose  drops,  nor  does  he  take  the  trouble 
to  wipe  it  with  his  handkerchief  till  it  has  moistened 
the  book  beneath  it  with  its  vile  dew.  For  such  a 
one  I  would  substitute  a  cobbler's  apron  in  the 
place  of  his  book.  He  has  a  nail  like  a  giant's, 
perfumed  with  stinking  ordure,  with  which  he 
points  out  the  place  of  any  pleasant  subject.  He 
distributes  innumerable  straws  in  various  places, 
with  the  ends  in  sight,  that  he  may  recall  by  the 


PHILOBIBLON.  125 

mark  what  his  memory  cannot  retain.  These 
straws,  which  the  stomach  of  the  book  never 
digests,  and  which  nobody  takes  out,  at  first 
distend  the  book  from  its  accustomed  closure,  and 
being  carelessly  left  to  oblivion,  at  last  become 
putrid.  He  is  not  ashamed  to  eat  fruit  and  cheese 
over  an  open  book,  and  to  transfer  his  empty  cup 
from  side  to  side  upon  it ;  and  because  he  has  not 
his  almsbag  at  hand,  he  leaves  the  rest  of  the  frag- 
ments in  his  books.  He  never  ceases  to  chatter 
with  eternal  garrulity  to  his  companions ;  and  while 
he  adduces  a  multitude  of  reasons  void  of  physical 
meaning,  he  waters  the  book,  spread  out  upon  his 
lap,  with  the  sputtering  of  his  saliva.  What  is 
worse,  he  next  reclines  with  his  elbows  on  the  book, 
and  by  a  short  study  invites  a  long  nap  ;  and  by 
way  of  repairing  the  wrinkles,  he  twists  back  the 
margins  of  the  leaves,  to  the  no  small  detriment  of 
the  volume.  He  goes  out  in  the  rain,  and  returns, 
and  now  flowers  make  their  appearance  upon  our 
soil.  Then  the  scholar  we  are  describing,  the 
neglector  rather  than  the  inspector  of  books,  stuffs 
his  volume  with  firstling  violets,  roses,  and  quadri- 
foils.     He  will  next  apply  his  wet  hands,  oozing 


126  PHILOBIBLON. 

with  sweat,  to  turning  over  the  volumes,  then  beat 
the  white  parchment  all  over  with  his  dusty  gloves, 
or  hunt  over  the  page,  line  by  line,  with  his  fore- 
finger covered  with  dirty  leather.  Then,  as  the 
flea  bites,  the  holy  book  is  thrown  aside,  which, 
however,  is  scarcely  closed  once  in  a  month,  and  is 
so  swelled  with  the  dust  that  has  fallen  into  it,  that 
it  will  not  yield  to  the  efforts  of  the  closer. 

But  impudent  boys  are  to  be  specially  restrained 
from  meddling  with  books,  who,  when  they  are 
learning  to  draw  the  forms  of  letters,  if  copies  of 
the  most  beautiful  books  are  allowed  them,  begin 
to  become  incongruous  annotators,  and  wherever 
they  perceive  the  broadest  margin  about  the  text, 
they  furnish  it  with  a  monstrous  alphabet,  or  their 
unchastened  pen  immediately  presumes  to  draw 
any  other  frivolous  thing  whatever  that  occurs  to 
their  imagination.  There  the  Latinist,  there  the 
Sophist,  there  every  sort  of  unlearned  scribe  tries 
the  goodness  of  his  pen,  which  we  have  frequently 
seen  to  have  been  most  injurious  to  the  fairest 
volumes,  both  as  to  utility  and  price.  There  are 
also  certain  thieves  who  enormously  dismember 
books  by  cutting  off  the  side  margins  for  letter 


PHILOBIBLON.  127 

paper,  leaving  only  the  letters  or  text,  or  the  fly- 
leaves put  in  for  the  preservation  of  the  book, 
which  they  take  away  for  various  uses  and  abuses, 
which  sort  of  sacrilege  ought  to  be  prohibited 
under  a  threat  of  anathema. 

But  it  is  altogether  befitting  the  decency  of  a 
scholar,  that  washing  should  without  fail  precede 
reading,  as  often  as  he  returns  from  his  meals  to 
study,  before  his  fingers  besmeared  with  grease 
loosen  a  clasp  or  turn  over  the  leaf  of  a  book. 
Let  not  a  crying  child  admire  the  drawings  in  the 
capital  letters,  lest  he  pollute  the  parchment  with 
his  wet  fingers,  for  he  instantly  touches  whatever 
he  sees. 

Furthermore,  laymen,  to  whom  it  matters  not 
whether  they  look  at  a  book  turned  wrong  side 
upwards  or  spread  before  them  in  its  natural  order, 
are  altogether  unworthy  of  any  communion  with 
books.  Let  the  clerk  also  take  order  that  the  dirty 
scullion,  stinking  from  the  pots,  do  not  touch  the 
leaves  of  books  unwashed ;  but  he  who  enters 
without  spot  shall  give  his  services  to  the  precious 
volumes.  The  cleanliness  of  delicate  hands,  as  if 
scabs  and  pustules   could  not  be  clerical  charac- 


128  PHILOBIBLON. 

teristics,  might  also  be  most  important,  as  well  to 
books  as  to  scholars,  who  as  often  as  they  perceive 
defects  in  books  should  attend  to  them  instantly, 
for  nothing  enlarges  more  quickly  than  a  rent,  as  a 
fracture  neglected  at  the  time  will  afterwards  be 
repaired  with  increased  trouble. 

The  most  meek  Moses  instructs  us  about 
making  cases  for  books  in  the  neatest  manner, 
wherein  they  may  be  safely  preserved  from  all 
damage.  ''  Take  this  book,"  says  he,  "  and  put  it 
in  the  side  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord 
your  God  "  (Deut.  xxxi.).  O,  befitting  place,  ap- 
propriate library,  which  was  made  of  imperishable 
Shittim  wood,  and  covered  all  over  inside  and  out 
with  gold!  But  our  Saviour  also,  by  His  own 
example,  precludes  all  unseemly  negligence  in  the 
treatment  of  books,  as  may  be  read  in  Luke  iv. 
For  when  He  had  read  over  the  Scriptural  pro- 
phecy written  about  himself  in  a  book  delivered  to 
Him,  He  did  not  return  it  to  the  minister  till  He 
had  first  closed  it  with  His  most  holy  hands;  by 
which  act  students  are  most  clearly  taught  that 
they  ought  not  in  the  smallest  degree  whatever  to 
be  negligent  about  the  custody  of  books. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  Author  against  Detractors, 

O  THING  is  held  to  be  more  unjust 
in  human  affairs  than  that  those 
things  which  are  most  justly  done 
should  be  perverted  by  the  oblo- 
quies of  the  malignant,  as  if  he 
who  reports  the  news  of  a  fault  should  thereby 
deserve  the  highest  degree  of  respect.  Many 
things  are  done  with  an  honest  intention  ;  the 
right  hand  does  not  interfere  with  the  left ;  the 
mass  is  not  corrupted  by  any  ferment,  nor  is  the 
garment  woven  of  flax  and  wool.  A  pious  work, 
however,  is  mendaciously  transformed  into  a  mon- 
ster by  the  legerdemain  of  perverters.  This  state 
of  a  sinful  mind  is  without  doubt  to  be  reprobated, 
because  it  not  only  judges  for  the  worst  of  acts 
morally  doubtful,  but  even  with  iniquitous  per- 
versity very  often  depraves  those  that  bear  the 
stamp  of  goodness. 

Now,  although  the  love  of  books,  in  a  clerical 


I30  PHILOBIBLON. 

man,  from  the  nature  of  the  object,  bears  honor 
in  the  face  of  it,  yet  it  made  us  in  a  wonderful 
manner  obnoxious  to  the  criticisms  of  many  ; 
traduced  by  whose  wonderings  we  were  sometimes 
remarked  upon  for  superfluous  curiosity,  some- 
times for  earnestness  in  that  matter  alone,  some- 
times for  a  display  of  vanity,  and  sometimes  for 
immoderate  pleasure  in  literature  ;  but,  in  truth, 
these  vituperations  no  more  discompose  us  than 
the  barking  of  a  lapdog,  being  contented  with  the 
testimony  of  Him  to  whom  alone  it  belongs  to 
search  the  reins  and  heart.  For  as  the  final  inten- 
tion of  the  secret  will  is  concealed  from  man  and 
exposed  to  God  alone,  the  inspector  of  hearts,  they 
deserve  to  be  rebuked  for  pernicious  rashness  who, 
not  perceiving  the  mainspring  of  human  actions, 
so  readily  set  the  sinister  mark  of  their  baneful 
temerity  upon  them.  For  the  end,  in  things  prac- 
ticable, sustains  itself  like  principles  in  speculative, 
and  assumptions  in  mathematical  propositions 
as  Aristotle,  the  prince  of  philosophers,  witnesses 
(Ethics,  7).  Wherefore,  as  the  truth  of  a  con- 
clusion is  made  clear  from  the  evidence  of  prin- 
ciples,  so,    for  the   most    part,   moral  goodness  in 


PHILOBIBLON.  131 

things  practicable  is  stamped  upon  the  performance 
by  the  intention  of  an  honest  purpose,  where  on 
the  contrary  the  work  itself  ought  to  be  deemed 
indifferent  as  to  morals.  But  we  have  for  a  long- 
time held  a  rooted  purpose  in  the  inmost  recesses 
of  our  mind,  looking  forward  to  a  favorable  time 
and  divine  aid,  to  found,  in  perpetual  alms,  and 
enrich  with  the  necessary  gifts,  a  certain  Hall  in 
the  revered  University  of  Oxford,  the  first  nurse  of 
all  the  liberal  arts;  and  further  to  enrich  the  same, 
when  occupied  by  numerous  scholars,  with  deposits 
of  our  books,  so  that  the  books  themselves  and 
every  one  of  them  may  be  made  common  as  to  use 
and  study,  not  only  to  the  scholars  of  the  said  Hall, 
but  through  them  to  all  the  students  of  the  afore- 
said University  for  ever,  according  to  the  manner 
and  form  which  the  following  chapter  will  declare. 
Wherefore  a  sincere  love  of  study  and  a  zeal  for 
confirming  the  orthodox  faith,  to  the  edification  of 
the  Church,  brought  forth  in  us  this  to  money- 
lovers  stupendous  solicitude  in  purchasing  such 
books,  collected  from  all  parts,  as  were  to  be  sold, 
regardless  of  the  expense,  and  of  causing  those  that 
ought  not  to  be  sold  to  be  handsomely  transcribed. 


132  PHILOBIRLON. 

For  as  the  pleasures  of  men  are  diversified  in 
many  manners,  according  to  the  disposition  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  to  which  a  complexion  of  mixtures 
frequently  accommodates  itself,  so  that  some  choose 
to  be  conversant  with  architecture,  some  with  agri- 
culture, some  with  field  sports,  some  with  naviga- 
tion, some  with  war,  and  some  with  games,  so  our 
Mercurial  sort  of  honest  pleasure  about  books  fell 
under  the  will  of  right  reason  (in  the  control  of 
which  no  stars  are  dominant),  which  we  have  so 
regulated  in  honor  of  the  Supreme  Majesty,  that 
our  mind  might  find  the  tranquillity  of  rest,  and 
that  the  worship  of  God  might  most  devoutly 
increase  thereby.  Wherefore  let  detractors  like 
the  blind  desist  from  judging  of  colors.  Let  not 
bats  dare  to  argue  about  lights,  nor  those  who  have 
beams  in  their  own  eyes  presume  to  pluck  the 
motes  out  of  other  people's.  Let  those  cease  to 
defame  what  they  know  nothing  of  with  satirical 
remarks,  and  to  discuss  secrets  which  are  not  open 
to  human  research,  who  perhaps  would  have  com- 
mended us  with  a  benevolent  affection  if  we  had 
found  leisure  for  hunting  wild  beasts,  playing  at 
hazard,  or  for  the  favors  of  mistresses. 


CHAPTER    I    X. 


A  Provident  Arrangement  by  which  Books  may  be 
Lent  to  Strangers. 

T  was  always  a  difficult  matter  so  to 
limit  men  to  the  rules  of  honesty, 
that  the  knavery  of  the  last  genera- 
tion might  not  overstep  the  bound- 
aries of  its  predecessor,  and  infringe 
established  rules  by  the  licentiousness  of  liberty. 
Wherefore  by  the  advice  of  prudent  men  we  have 
devised  beforehand  a  certain  method  by  which  we 
wish  the  communication  and  use  of  our  books  to 
descend  to  the  service  of  students.  In  the  first 
place,  therefore,  we  have  conceded  and  given  with 
a  charitable  view,  to  a  company  of  scholars  residing 
in  a  Hall  at  Oxford,  as  a  perpetual  alms-deed  for 
our  own  soul  and  for  the  souls  of  our  parents,  as 
well  as  for  the  souls  of  the  most  illustrious  King  of 


134  PHILOBIBLON. 

England,  Edward  the  Third,  after  the  Conquest, 
and  of  the  most  devout  Lady  Philippa  his  consort, 
all  and  singular  the  books  of  which  we  have  made 
a  special  catalogue,  that  all  and  singular  the  said 
books  may  be  lent  out  for  a  time  to  the  scholars 
and  masters,  as  well  regulars  as  seculars,  of  the 
University  of  the  said  city,  for  the  advantage  and 
use  of  students,  according  to  the  manner  imme- 
diately subjoined,  which  is  to  this  effect. 

Five  of  the  scholars  dwelling  in  the  aforesaid 
Hall  are  to  be  appointed  by  the  master  of  the  same 
Hall,  to  whom  the  custody  of  the  books  is  to  be 
deputed.  Of  which  five,  three,  and  in  no  case 
fewer,  shall  be  competent  to  lend  any  books  for 
inspection  and  use  only  ;  but  for  copying  and 
transcribing  we  will  not  allow  any  book  to  pass 
without  the  walls  of  the  house.  Therefore  when 
any  scholar,  whether  secular  or  religious,  whom  we 
have  deemed  qualified  for  the  present  favor,  shall 
demand  the  loan  of  a  book,  the  keeper  must  care- 
fully consider  whether  they  have  a  duplicate  of 
that  book ;  and  if  so,  they  may  lend  it  to  him, 
taking  a  security  which  in  their  opinion  shall 
exceed  in  value  the  book  delivered  ;  and  they  shall 


PHILOBIBLON.  135 

immediately  make  a  written  memorandum  both  of 
the  security  and  the  book  lent,  containing  the 
names  of  the  persons  who  delivered  the  book,  and 
of  him  who  received  it,  with  the  day  and  year  of 
our  Lord  on  which  the  loan  took  place.  But  if 
the  keepers  shall  find  that  there  is  no  duplicate  of 
the  book  demanded,  they  shall  not  lend  such  book 
to  any  one  whomsoever,  unless  he  be  of  the  com- 
pany of  scholars  of  the  said  Hall,  except  as  it  may 
happen  for  inspection  within  the  walls  of  the 
aforesaid  Hall,  but  not  to  be  carried  beyond  them. 
But  to  every  scholar  whatever  of  the  aforesaid 
Hall,  any  book  whatever  may  be  available  by  loan  ; 
his  name,  and  the  day  on  which  he  received  the 
book,  being  first  noted  down.  He,  however,  is  not 
to  have  the  power  of  lending  the  book  delivered  to 
him  to  another,  without  the  assent  of  three  of  the 
aforesaid  keepers,  and  then  the  name  of  the  first 
borrower  being  erased,  the  name  of  the  second, 
with  the  time  of  delivery,  is  to  be  inscribed.  For 
observing  all  these  conditions  each  of  the  keepers 
shall  pledge  his  faith,  when  a  custody  of  this  kind 
is  deputed  to  him.  But  the  receivers  of  a  book  or 
books  shall  swear  in  like  manner  that  he  or  they 


136  PHILOBIBLON. 

shall  in  no  way  apply  a  book  to  any  other  use  but 
to  inspection  or  study,  and  that  they  will  neither 
carry  nor  permit  it  to  be  carried  without  the  city 
of  Oxford  and  the  suburbs.  And  the  aforesaid 
keepers  must  render  an  account  every  year  to  the 
master  of  the  house,  and  two  of  his  scholars  to  be 
selected  by  him  ;  or  if  he  has  not  leisure,  he  shall 
depute  three  inspectors,  not  being  keepers,  who 
reading  over  the  catalogue  must  see  that  they  have 
the  whole,  either  in  the  books  themselves  or  at 
least  in  the  securities  representing  them.  We  also 
think  the  most  convenient  time  for  settling  this 
account  will  be  from  the  kalends  of  June  to  the 
subsequent  feast  of  the  most  glorious  martyr 
St.  Thomas.  But  we  have  to  add  this,  that  every 
person,  in  every  instance,  to  whom  any  book  has 
been  lent,  shall  exhibit  the  book  once  in  the  year 
to  the  keepers,  and  if  he  wishes  it  he  shall  see  his 
security.  Moreover,  if  any  book  should  happen  to 
be  lost,  through  death,  theft,  fraud  or  carelessness, 
he  who  lost  it  or  his  administrator  or  executor  shall 
in  like  manner  pay  the  price  of  the  book  and 
receive  the  security  ;  but  if  profit  should  in  any  way 
arise  to  the  keepers  themselves,  it  is  not  to  be  con- 


PHILOBIBLON. 


m 


verted  to  any  other  purpose  than   to  the  aid  and 
repairing  of  the  books. 

Here  we  pass  over  many  particulars  relating  to 
the  care  of  books,  because  it  appears  unnecessary 
to  detail  them  at  present. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Authoi'  desires  to  be  prayed  for,  and  notably 
teaches  Students  to  Pray. 


A 

1 

IME  now  urges  us  to  finish  the 
tract  we  are  tagging  together 
about  the  love  of  books,  in  which 
we  have  endeavored  to  account 
for  the  amazement  of  our  con- 
temporaries at  our  taking  such  great  delight  in 
books.  But  because  scarcely  anything  can  be  said 
to  be  performed  by  mortals  that  has  not  some 
sprinkling  of  the  powder  of  vanity  in  it,  we  will  not 
attempt  entirely  to  justify  the  zealous  love  we  have 
so  constantly  had  for  books,  as  it  may  perhaps  at 
times  have  been  the  cause  of  some  venial  neglect 
on  our  part,  although  the  object  of  our  love  were 
honorable  and  the  intention  regulated.  For  may 
we  not  still  be  bound  to  call  ourselves  unprofitable 
servants,  when  we  shall  have  done  all  these  things? 


I40  PHILOBIBLON. 

Indeed,  if  the  most  holy  Job  was  fearful  in  all  his 
works  ;  if,  according  to  Isaiah,  all  our  righteousness 
is  as  a  menstruous  cloth,  who  shall  presume  to 
boast  of  the  perfection  of  any  virtue  whatever?  or 
shall  not  deserve  to  be  reprehended  for  some 
circumstances  which  perhaps  he  was  not  able  to 
perceive  of  himself?  For  good  arises  out  of  pure 
causes  ;  but  evil  is  omnifarious  (as  Dionysius  in- 
structs us,  on  Divine  Names). 

Wherefore,  being  about  to  demand  the  aid  of 
prayers  as  a  remedy  for  the  sins  by  which  we 
acknowledge  ourselves  very  often  to  have  offended 
the  Creator  of  all  things,  we  have  thought  proper 
to  exhort  our  future  students,  that  they  may  in  so 
far  become  grateful  as  well  to  ourselves  as  to  their 
other  future  benefactors,  as  to  recompense  our 
providential  benefactions  by  spiritual  retributions, 
that  we  may  live  entombed  in  their  memories,  who 
being  yet  unborn  lived  in  our  benevolence,  and 
now  live,  supported  by  our  benefactions. 

Let  them,  with  unwearied  importunity,  implore 
the  clemency  of  our  Redeemer,  to  the  end  that  He 
may  spare  our  neglects  ;  that  the  pious  Judge  may 
be  indulgent  to  the  guilt  of  our  sins  ;  that  He  may 


PHILOBIBLON.  141 

throw  the  cloak  of  charity  over  the  omissions  of 
our  frailty,  and  through  His  divine  benignity  remit 
the  offenses  which  with  shame  and  repentance  we 
acknowledge  ourselves  to  have  committed  ;  that 
He  may  preserve  in  us  sufficient  time  for  repent- 
ance, for  returning  thanks  for  His  gifts,  for  the 
confirmation  of  our  faith,  for  the  exaltation  of  our 
hope,  and  for  the  most  unbounded  charity  towards 
all  mankind  ;  that  He  may  incline  our  proud  will 
to  lament  its  errors,  to  deplore  its  former  most 
vain  elations,  retract  its  most  bitter  indignations, 
and  detest  its  most  insane  pleasures;  that  His 
strength  may  grow  in  us  as  our  own  decays,  who 
alike  gratuitously  consecrated  our  entrance  into 
holy  baptism,  and  undeservedly  exalted  our  progress 
to  the  apostolical  state.  That  the  love  of  the  flesh 
may  be  weakened  in  our  spirit,  and  the  fear  of 
death  entirely  vanish  from  it ;  that  it  may  desire  to 
be  set  at  liberty  and  to  be  with  Christ ;  and  that 
when  in  body  alone  we  are  placed  in  the  earth,  we 
may  dwell  in  thought  and  earnest  desire  in  the 
eternal  country  ! 

May  the  Father  of  mercy  and  the  God  of  all 
consolation  run  to  meet  the  prodigal  son  returning 


142  PHILOBIBLON. 

from   the    husks !     May    He    receive    the    drachm 
found  again,  and  transmit  it  by  holy  angels  into 
the  eternal  treasury  !     May  He,  with  terrific  coun- 
tenance, castigate  the  spirit  of  darkness  in  the  hour 
of  our  departure,  that  the  old  serpent  Leviathan, 
lurking  at  the  threshold  of  the  gate  of  death,  may 
not  prepare  unlooked-for  snares  for  our  feet !     But 
when   we    shall    be  called   up  to   the  tremendous 
tribunal,  that  we  may  relate  everything  that  we  did 
in  the  body  (our  conscience  bearing  witness),  may 
humanity  joined  to  God  consider  the  price  of  His 
holy  blood  poured  out  for  us  !  and  may  Divinity 
made    man    advert    to  the   composition   of    carnal 
nature,  that  its  fragility  may  pass  on  with  impunity 
to  that  place  where  clement  piety  is  declared  to  be 
infinite,  where  the  spirit  of  mercy  breathes,  and 
where    the    peculiar  office  of  the  Judge   is  to  be 
exceedingly  merciful !     Furthermore,  the  refuge  of 
our  hope,  next  to  God  and  the  Blessed  Virgin  and 
Queen-Mother,  is  that  our  students  may  always  be 
careful  to  reiterate  devout  salutations,  that  we,  who 
deserve  to   meet   an   angry  Judge,  may  be  made 
worthy  to  find  Him  appeased  by  their  ever  grateful 
suffrages  !     May  a  pious  hand  depress  to  an  equi- 


PHILOBIBLON.  143 

poise  the  scale  in  which  our  merits,  as  small  as 
few,  shall  be  weighed,  lest  (which  God  forbid  !)  the 
weight  of  crime  may  preponderate,  and  cast  us  to 
be  damned  in  the  abyss !  Moreover,  let  them  be 
devoutly  anxious  to  venerate  the  merits  of  St.  Cuth- 
bert  the  confessor,  whose  flock  we,  though  un- 
worthy, took  upon  ourselves  to  feed,  earnestly 
praying  that  he  may  favorably  condescend  to 
exculpate  his  vicar,  though  indeed  undeserving, 
and  that  he  may  bring  it  about  that  the  successor 
he  admitted  on  earth,  may  be  made  a  confessor  in 
heaven  ! 

Finally  :  Let  them  beseech  God  with  holy 
prayers,  as  well  bodily  as  mental,  that  He  may 
bring  back  the  spirit  created  in  the  image  of  the 
Trinity,  after  its  sojourn  in  this  life  of  misery,  to 
its  primordial  prototype,  and  grant  it  a  perpetual 
view  of  His  rejoicing  countenance,  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ !     Amen. 

Here  endeth  the  Philobibloii,  or  Book  upojt 

the  Love  of  Books,  Printed  at  Cologne, 

i7i  the  year  of  our  Lord 

MCCCCLXXIIL 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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